Years vs Days
by sierra.steinbrecher
Summary: After their ordeal at the hands of Dante, Alphonse wakes up, but in his fifteen year old body with Rose hovering over him. Five days later they found Edward. And the price he had paid for Al was a hard one. I don't own the series. Rated just to be safe. Cover from fudfoodle of Deviantart.
1. Where's Ed?

Al woke up, then immediately wondered how he was still alive. _I gave myself up for Brother. So why am I still here? _He started to get up before noticing that his body wouldn't move. Wait. His body.

Al looked down and saw his torso. It was his flesh and bone torso, although emancipated, but definitely not armor, and certainly not the Philosopher's Stone. He lifted an arm and pinched himself. "Oww!" Okay, so this wasn't a dream. He was really back! "Brother, I'm back! Brother I'm-". Then a thought, a horrible thought, cut him off. There was no way he should have been able to get his body back without losing something. But he had everything. He could feel every limb, every organ, every inch of skin, HUMAN skin. So who had paid the price? Where was Ed?

The boy flung his new head in all directions, searching for his older brother. But all he saw was a girl in a pink dress. Wait, girl in a pink dress? He looked closer and started to recognize her. It was Rose! His heart leapt a little. She'd be able to tell him what happened.

Rose was able to tell him some of what had happened, how Ed had come back and then asked her to leave. She'd come back to make sure the blonde shorty was alright, but had found Al instead. As she talked to him, her eyes subconsciously drifted downwards, and she immediately went red. Al followed her gaze and blushed even deeper. He wasn't wearing any clothes!

He immediately sat down and grabbed his knees to his chest, partly from exhaustion-his body really wasn't in the best shape-and partly to spare Rose. He shyly asked, "Do you know if there's anything I could wear around here?" She nodded and ran off, coming back with a long coat in her arms. It was huge on his fragile frame, but served his purpose. He had to get back to Central and start all of them looking for Ed.

After about an hour to let Al build up some energy, he and Rose found the way Ed had used to come down to this awful city. It took a while, since he wasn't very strong, but they eventually made it up to the surface level. It was light outside, looking like midmorning. The night had passed while they were working their way up. Although they didn't really know where they were, Rose did some asking for directions and finally managed to get an idea of where Central Command was. Eventually, she had to leave him at a coffee shop where she asked the owner to look after him. Now she could run.

Rose tightened her grip on her baby, hiked up her dress, and kicked into high gear. When she got to Command, the two guards outside the gates barred her way. "Where do you think you're going miss?"

She brought herself up to her full height and remembered what Alphonse had told her to say. "I need to see Lieutenant Hawkeye. It's about the Elric brothers."

"I'm sorry ma'am, but we're going to have to ask you to-" They were cut off by a different voice.

"What about the Elric brothers?" It was a woman in a brown turtleneck and slightly lighter long coat, coming from the direction of the hospital. She matched Al's description to a T.

Rose bit her lip. "Are you Riza Hawkeye?"

The woman nodded. "Yes. Can I help you?"

"Come with me."

Riza followed the girl to the shop where she'd left Alphonse. Riza gasped when she saw him. The boy was little more than skin and bones, but he was human. Alphonse was human. She smiled and said, "It's good to see you back in your body, Al. But where's Ed?"

"That's the problem," said Al as he attempted to get up and greet her, although he sank back into his chair defeated. "When I woke up, I was like this and no one was there but Rose." He nodded in the direction of the girl with the two-tone hair. "I think Ed's missing."

Riza pulled out the chair across from where Al was sitting. "Can you tell me about it?"

"Yes." And Alphonse told her the whole story, from the Liore incident to the discovery of the city underneath Central. "We reached the surface about an hour ago, but I haven't seen Brother anywhere. I can't really look for him like this, but," and he whipped out the puppy eyes. "I thought maybe you could help me find him."

Riza leaned back in her chair. If what Ed had told her was true, then there had to have been a price for getting Al's body back. Paying that price had been the whole point of their search. She put her elbows back on the table and peered at the young man in front of her. "You know it's possible that Ed might really be gone, Alphonse. The price for getting you back might have been his own life."

"NO!" Al banged his boney fist on the table. "Brother wouldn't do that! He wouldn't sacrifice himself like that! He wouldn't leave me alone, even if it meant getting my body back. We're all we've got!"

Riza put her hand over his fisted one and held it. "You're right Alphonse. Ed wouldn't do something like that. Let's get you to Command. Then we can sort this thing out." _Easy for me to say, _she thought to herself. _With Roy out of commission from that earlier fight, I've only got the others to work with on this. I could probably get Armstrong and his crew on the case, but I don't know how good they are at this sort of thing. _

She got up and motioned for Rose to join her. _It's times like these that I actually miss Hughes. _She and Rose each took one of Al's arms over their shoulder and helped him walk the remaining few blocks to Central. They had some work to do.

**Don't be review shy. And yes, I will be bringing Ed back.**


	2. Who's He?

Heymans exited the grocery store and joined Jean and Kain outside in the street. Jean asked, "Any luck?" Heymans shook his head.

Jean sighed. "We've been looking for him for five days. You think he really could be gone?"

Kain looked at his feet. "If he is, what do you think Al's gonna do?" The boy had been stuck in the hospital for all five days since he'd come back with Rose. He'd wanted to search himself, but was forced to let the others handle matters. Riza had managed to get Alphonse assigned to the same room as the recovering Colonel so she could keep tabs on both of them at the same time. That was where the three men were headed, to give Alphonse an update on the situation with his brother.

They were passing a florist when Jean had the idea. "Let's bring him some of these." He waved at the wildflowers. "I'll bet he'd like 'em."

"Yeah," answered Heymans. "We'll meet ya there."

Jean bent down over the flowers and picked out five or six. He was so engrossed that he didn't notice someone coming up behind him until there was a hand on his shoulder spinning him around, and he came face to face with... "Ed?"

Ed smiled. "Yeah, did you forget me already? Wow, Havoc." He studied the man's face. "You haven't changed a bit. Which is kinda weird. Where's the colonel and the rest?"

Jean started blinking rapidly. "They're at the hospital with Al. He's-"

"The hospital?" Ed suddenly looked very worried. "What happened?" But before Jean could answer, his friend was running in the direction of Al. Jean hurriedly put the flowers back in their bucket and ran after him.

Everyone but Jean was in the hospital room with Mustang and Al. They were listening to Fuery telling about which sections of the city they'd searched that day when there was a commotion outside. "I don't care if he already has visitors, let me in!" and a strange blonde burst into the room.

The first thing they all noticed was his eyes. Gold, determined, and so very like Ed's. But Ed wasn't nearly that tall, or broad-shouldered, or square-jawed. Who was this guy?

He ran over to Alphonse, gave him a quick look, and groaned. "You're still like this? Seriously, what have you been doing all this time Al?"

Mustang attempted to sit up straighter. "Excuse me, but who are you?"

The blonde turned and glared at him. "What happened to make you such a pain, Mustang? Seriously! It's me. And what happened to your face? One too many slaps from the ladies?"

The others in the room tensed. Who was this guy, to just barge in here and start yelling at the boss?

"Man, did the other eye get damaged too, or are you just being a bigger pain than usual?" Now Mustang was bristling as well. Just because this punk looked a little like someone famous he thought he could act this way.

Then Jean appeared hunched over in the doorway. "Ed, how'd you get so fast?"

The stranger turned to the new arrival. "Lots of running. Now what's going on?" He brandished a finger, a metallic finger, at Alphonse. "Why does Al still look like he just came out of the gate? What happened to Mustang? And why do you all look the same as when I left?"

Then Al's small voice cut through the yelling. "Brother?"

He turned to the boy on the bed. "Yes." And he sat down beside his brother and wrapped him in a bear hug. "It's me. I'm back." He let go so he could see Al's face. He frowned. "But what happened to you? Why are you like this again?"

The boy laughed a little. "Well it's only been five days, Brother. I don't know what you were expecting me to do." He had expected Ed to laugh at him, enjoy the small joke, but instead, he got up off the bed and stared at his younger brother.

"What do you mean, five days Al?"

He shrugged. "That's how long you were missing for. You weren't there when I woke up, so we've been looking all over town. I'm glad you're back. But why do you look so different?"

Ed lowered his head until his bangs, thicker now, covered his eyes and most of his face. "So that's what Truth meant." He looked back up, and Al shrank from the expression on his face. He'd only seen that expression twice before, when they found out about Hughes and discovered the main ingredient of the Philosopher's Stone. It was the expression he wore when he'd just discovered something he wished he'd never learned. "When I opened the gate to bring you back, Truth asked me what I would pay. I told him I'd give anything, so he proposed to take five years of my life." The alchemist let out a harsh laugh. "I thought he just meant he'd be taking those years off my lifespan. But that wasn't what he did."

He sat back down on Al's bed. "He threw me into a different world and only let me come back today. Now I understand what he meant. What was five days for you," he gestured to everyone around him, "was five years for me."

**And so the reason for the title comes out! I had trouble sticking to the canon and still making this work. Jean is my second favorite after the mustang crew, so of course I let him find Ed. There's a reference piece I used to older Edward, which I will put out as the cover as soon as I get permission from the artist.**

**Please Review!**


	3. Very Different

Silence filled the room. Mustang stared at the man hunched over on Alphonse's bed. It was starting to make sense now. Ed's odd comments, his changed appearance, his reaction to his brother's state, it all started to come together in his head. But as much sense as it made, Mustang still couldn't wrap his head around the idea.

It was clear from the looks on the other's faces that they were having a hard time with this as well. Edward Elric was suddenly a man. And not just any man. A tall man. A handsome man. A rival.

Rival? Mustang immediately pushed that thought out of his head. This was Fullmetal they were talking about. The kid couldn't flirt his way out of a paper bag. The nurse he'd shouted into submission before entering came into the room and tried to drag the suddenly returned brother out of the room when Fullmetal smiled at her. "I'm sorry miss, but I just had to see my little brother. It's been a long time and I was worried about him." The nurse let go of his arm. Okay. Maybe rival wasn't so far off. Wait. WHAT!?

Roy's confusing train of thoughts was cut short by Riza asking Edward, "So where have you been for the past five days?"

Ed sighed, the sound much bigger as it came from a broader chest. "Somewhere I never want to go back to. Believe me; Ishval would seem like a picnic after that. But what have you guys been up to?"

Roy wanted to ask him more, but was interrupted when Heymans spoke up. "Mainly looking for you. Alphonse wouldn't let us rest until you were found. Oh, and Mustang killed King Bradley but got injured as a result. The government is deciding on a new Fuhrer, with Generals Armstrong and Grumman at the top of the list. Other than that, not much."

Ed looked over at Mustang, eyebrows raised. "So you managed to get Pride, huh? Good. With me finishing off Envy, the only ones left are Wrath and Gluttony. I never did find out what happened to those guys. Gluttony's probably just off eating somewhere but I'm worried about Wrath. No telling what he's gotten up to while I've been gone."

Al grabbed his brother's wrist, although weakly. "He can't have done that much damage, brother. It's only been five days. If he'd done anything, it would have been here in Central, so we would have heard about it."

Ed sat back down nest to his brother, a more relieved expression on his face. "You're right. I just can't believe it's only been five days here." Only Al picked up on the sadness in his tone, it was gone so quickly. He stood back up and headed for the door. "Well, now that I'm back I'd better visit Central. I've got to see if I'm still a State Alchemist, or if I'll need to pass the test again, to instate my new identity with the military. I think the new regime could use some help. See you guys later." He was about to head for the door when he saw how they were all staring at him. "What?"

"I-it's just, well," Kain stuttered out, "You're taller now."

"OH, SO YOU THOUGHT I WAS GONNA STAY A SHRIMP FOREVER?! I'M TWENTY-ONE YEARS OLD!" and he stormed out of the room.

Once they were sure the Fullmetal was out of earshot, all seven of them burst into laughter. Some things just never changed.

Ed could hear them laughing as he leaned against one of the doors down the hall a ways. He'd blown up on purpose, to try to assure them that some things hadn't changed. And it seemed to have worked. He sighed inwardly. This wasn't going to be easy.

They had had five days without him. Five days! How were they going to react to him as he was now? If they got that flustered just by the change in his height, how would they respond to stories of the war he'd been in, the bomb he'd created, the lives he'd destroyed? And people thought Mustang was a monster.

Well, he wasn't going to do any good just standing here. The next step of reentry was getting back his standing as a State Alchemist. And to make that happen, he had to get to Central. Truth may have screwed him over again, but he wasn't going to let that stop him from moving forward. And as he started walking, a new thought struck him.

This might not be so bad after all. What had the alternative been? Coming home to find an Alphonse who had missed him for five years had been the only other option. This way, he'd only missed five days of Al's growing up, instead of the five years he'd been expecting. Sure, it would be hard for the others to adjust to the changes in him, but they would have had to do that anyway. At least this way they had more time to do it.

Then he suddenly remembered Mustang's face when he'd stood. With six feet and five inches, he just might beat out the colonel in the height department now. Ed grinned at the thought. Perhaps it was time to put his lady-killer skills to test. Mustang's reputation with women could take being knocked down a couple of inches.

**How did you like Mustang's initial reaction? Ed is totally gonna give him a run for his money in that department.**

**I LOVE REVIEWS!**


	4. reintroduction, but not legally

The younger Elric sat back against the cushions after he'd finished laughing at his brother's outburst. That hug had been the best thing he'd felt so far. It had somehow assured him that everything was going to be alright. Ed was back. Sure, he was a little different, but it was nothing he couldn't get used to.

Al smiled to himself. How different could Ed be if he still reacted to jabs about his height? Then the smile faded. How tall had Brother been? He had been taller than both lieutenants. What else had changed?

He closed his eyes and prepared to go back to sleep. Well, whatever it was, he and Brother would face it together, like they always had. And with that comforting thought, Alphonse drifted into sleep.

But Mustang didn't share his blissful oblivion. Something was bothering him about Fullmetal. Not the kid himself-wait, could he even call him that anymore?-but about how the world was going to react to him. Mustang suddenly sat bolt upright. Ed had gone to Central Command to check his State Alchemist status. To the military, Fullmetal was still a fifteen-year-old brat, the youngest State Alchemist in history. He sent Breda out of the room and after the blonde. Hopefully the man could catch him before he caused havoc in someone's office.

Breda managed to catch Ed just as he was leaving the hospital. "Ed!"

The boy turned around and gave a cheery smile. "What's wrong, Breda?"

"Mustang sent me to get you. Something about the military not knowing your new age."

Ed paled. He hadn't thought of that. How was he going to explain suddenly being twenty-one years old? Who would even believe it was actually him? His own brother hadn't recognized him, at least not right away. He ran back to the stairs and joined Breda in the race to the room. Hopefully Mustang would have some ideas.

That's what Mustang was trying to come up with. People didn't suddenly just age. If Fullmetal had been gone for a longer amount of time, maybe a year or so, the story would have been more believable. But no. He'd just been gone for five days. That was all he had to work with. Why couldn't the idiot have stayed away longer?

Said idiot was now walking through the door to the room, surprisingly pale. Obviously, he'd grasped the gravity of the situation. Fullmetal had always been a quick study. The Flame crossed his arms and grumbled, "I don't suppose you have any ideas about how you're suddenly going to legally age five years."

To his surprise, Edward smirked. "Actually, I do." And he laid out his plan of action.

**(I could have made this a cliffhanger, but decided to be merciful.)**

Ten days after the demise of King Bradley, newly elected Fuhrer Olivier Armstrong was sitting at her desk looking over some new proposals from the weapons division. They had proposed the idea of using explosives on a grander scale than what was currently in use, and the idea had intrigued her. Briggs definitely didn't need such measure, but the idea did have merit if the south, east, or west ever decided to act up. She was toying with the idea of having Colonel Mustang oversee the project when Lieutenant Hawkeye burst through her doors.

If it had been anyone else, they would have quickly found themselves on the end of an ice glare rumored to decrease body temperature by ten degrees just by being in the same room with it, let alone being the recipient of such a look. But Riza had the Ice Fuhrer's respect, as only one strong fighter can have for another. So Olivier put down the documents, folded her hands underneath her chin, and calmly asked the gunwoman what the problem was.

Riza stood to attention and answered in a clipped military voice. "Sir, Edward Elric has been found."

One blonde eyebrow arched. "But?"

The sherry-eyed woman relaxed her saluting arm and stood at ease. "Something's changed him."

"In what way, Lieutenant?"

"We're not sure. Physical changes, perhaps psychological as well."

Armstrong leaned forward slightly. "Can you describe it for me Lieutenant?"

"He appears to have aged several years."

Olivia's eyes widened slightly. This was news indeed. "Bring him to the infirmary. I'll visit him there at around 1500 hours. I'd like to ask him some questions." And the Ice Fuhrer went back to her paperwork with slightly less focus.

Once Riza left Central Command, she headed for a nearby hotel where the rest of the crew was waiting to hear the outcome of her meeting. They'd decided she should be the one to lay the trail for the Ice Fuhrer since she seemed to have a modicum of respect for the sharp shooter, which was more than the rest of them could say. Ed was the one who answered the knock at the door. "So, when do I go onstage?"

Riza stepped past him into the room. "You're to be in the infirmary as soon as possible, and the Fuhrer will come to talk to you at 3:00. Do you have your cover story?"

Ed nodded. "Of course. I'm the one who came up with it. We'd better get to the infirmary, then."

"Not before you get into costume!" Several hands pulled him from a nearby door, which slammed shut as soon as he fully stumbled back into the adjacent room. When he again emerged, after lots of thumping and what sounded like strangled cries of "NO WAY!", Ed emerged again, this time sporting several blossoming bruises and more than a little red. Riza knew it was only makeup and a little food coloring, but she couldn't help but feel that some of them were real. Oh well, his many scars highlighted the image of beaten, kidnapped, experimented on teen, especially since they'd highlighted several of them in red to make the skin seem agitated and newly healed.

"Well, you certainly look the part. Now you've just got to pull it off." And they headed out the door, Ed walking with a very convincing limp.

**Encourage the next chapter and Review? How is Ed going to fool Olivier Armstrong? How did you like my choice of Fuhrer?**

**I'm putting up a poll for this to decide what different features Ed should have after his absense. I may have to add them into eariler chapters, but it would still be fun. This is my first try at letting readers decide something!**

**Thanks for Kittykitkat and Guest for my first reviews! You guys made me soooo Motivated!**


	5. Fooling Olivier

It took longer than he'd expected to reach the infirmary, probably because of the act he was putting on. He couldn't afford to look to healthy, especially the closer they got to Command. So he laid on the limp thick. Gate knew he'd had enough practice over the last five years, especially before he found a decent prosthetic company. The one he had now for his leg was a plastic model, one of his better ones but nowhere near as good as Winry's work. Oh Gate. Winry.

She'd still be fifteen! How was he going to explain this all to her? _Well, at least I'm not in love with her anymore. _Five years on the other side had changed his perspective about romance, especially when her double had tried to catch his attention with, well, very un-Winry techniques. Although those encounters had given him the skills he would be using to take the Colonel down a notch. He grinned at the thought, before he remembered that he was supposed to be in terrible pain.

While he had been enveloped in his thoughts, the two of them had reached the infirmary. Hawkeye went up to the front desk to explain the situation, only to find that the Fuhrer had already arranged for a room under the name "Fullmetal". They headed on up and successfully entered the room three hours before the Ice Fuhrer was due in.

Those three hours would have taken forever, if not for the fact that Ed had a couple of different nurses to practice on. Riza was quickly becoming disgusted with his behavior. Finally, when the latest one left blushing, she fired a warning shot two inches from his right ankle. "Care to explain why you've flirted with every woman so far, Edward?"

To her surprise, he didn't even flinch at the bullet, and kept his response light and harmless. "Practice."

Her eyes narrowed. "Practice for what?"

Ed swung his legs up onto the bed he was supposed to be lying on. "I need my skills sharp if I'm taking on Mustang. Besides," and he gave her a sly wink. "I know who to target and who to leave alone."

She still didn't approve, but she had to agree, at least a little. The Colonel's habits were getting a bit out of hand. And Ed still carried a torch for his mechanic, so it wasn't as if the boy was looking for a relationship. So she tolerated his flirting for the next hour before Armstrong was due in.

When the Iceberg entered the room, Edward's train of thought froze. He turned to meet the iciest glare he had witnessed yet, and it was trained directly on him. "You are Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, correct?"

He sat icepick straight in the bed, just short of saluting. He was supposed to be injured, after all. "Yes ma'am."

Olivier was still staring at him. From what she'd been told, the Fullmetal Alchemist was a fifteen-year-old bratty shrimp. He was not tall, mature, or orderly like the person in front of her. Hawkeye had not overstated the changes. But enough. She had to find out how this had happened. "I've heard this is not your normal appearance. Care to explain?"

And there it was. _Time to roll out the story. _"Yes." And he started feeding her his concoction. "I was searching the sewers for a creature called a chimera, or at least that's what I think it was." Better to keep close to the truth, right? "It looked human, but it could change into different animals at will. I'd tracked it into one of the larger maintenance halls when the floor around me started to glow." _Okay, maybe the glow was started by me, but she doesn't need to know that. _"I guess the effect of it knocked me out. When I woke up, I looked like this. I tried to get out of the underground, but I was dazed and couldn't remember my way up. Once I got back here, Lieutenant Hawkeye found me and told me some of what had happened while I was missing. Then she went to get you."

She nodded once. "I assume these changes won't inhibit your ability to function as a State Alchemist, Elric. If so, I ask that you resign as soon as possible." And the blizzard swept out of the room.

Riza breathed a sigh of relief. She had bought it. _Well, we finished clearing the hurdles. Hopefully things will get back to normal now. _She left the room with a hopeful smile on her face.

Ed bit his lip and looked down at his hands. He'd been able to cover up the physical changes with just an experimentation cover story. But thank goodness they hadn't seen his back when they were 'getting him into costume'. That, he would keep hidden for as long as possible. _And that's not even the worst. I may have been reinstated, but I'm still just a kid in the world's eyes. I'm gonna have to be careful. I can't let slip anything that happened to me in those years, at least where anyone who doesn't know can hear. _He sighed, liked the tired old man he felt like. This was going to be far from easy.

**Thanks for the encouragement, guys!**

** Tosca-well, it's been used as an excuse for things like this before, and it actually works well in this world.**

** Cari-I know. She's my favorite out of all the authority figures (Mustang isn't quite that high in the ranks yet).**

**The poll is still up if you wanna check it out! See last chapter for details.**


	6. Winry

Once he washed off his 'costume' and the doctor pronounced him healthy as a horse, Ed set out to solve a problem he'd discovered almost immediately upon his return. None of his clothes fit!

Seriously, how was he supposed to wear his trademark red coat when it went three fourths of the way down his arms? And don't even get him started on the pants. Besides, with all the pay he'd never spent, this was hardly going to drain his account. And so Ed strode out into Central, intent on restocking his wardrobe.

It was strange how little the city had changed. _Well, I've only been gone from here for five days. It's not like anyone would move. _So all the different mechanic stores Winry had dragged him and Al along to look at were still standing. Which brought him back to the anxious topic of his former crush.

Sooner or later, he was going to have to confront her and Granny about his new five years. Sooner, probably. He couldn't take limping like this much longer, and his arm wasn't nearly up to snuff either. He needed some better fitting limbs, and tougher too, as he was working for the military again. At least this time it was the Amestrian military, not the American one. Still, brooding about it would do no good. He turned away from the display of mechanic tools and walked down the street a ways.

He headed into a men's clothing store and sorted through their rack of ties. He'd gotten used to business attire, and found it almost comforting. It wasn't as easy to move in as the black jacket or leather had been, but he noticed the respect it occasionally garnered him. And, of course, a well-dressed man would help boot down the idiot Colonel. But he'd be in uniform most of the time anyway. The excuse he'd used in the past, that they didn't have one in his size, wouldn't hold up now. If they had one big enough for the Alex Armstrong, they certainly had one big enough for him.

Still, Ed couldn't resist adding embellishments from his years chasing the Stone. So every suit jacket or coat he bought ended up with a black or red Flamel emblazoned somewhere, depending on the make and color of the item in question. His favorite spot was on both lapels. He was contemplating whether or not to add it to the ties too when pain shot up the remainder of his left leg. Gate, that hurt! Ed stumbled into the store's changing room and took off his pants to get a better look at the afflicted area.

Stupid leg. The edges of the cup that the stump rested in had rubbed the skin raw. He must have forgotten to insert the silk he used between the two surfaces. It looked like Winry would find out about him sooner rather than later.

But he had to get to her first, which was going to be a problem with a leg this painful. He dressed himself again, limped to the counter and paid for his purchases. There had been a telephone booth outside, right?

He took a glance out the front window of the shop. Between the mannequins peeked the red box, a welcome sight. One of the crew could probably pick him up. After a couple of phone calls and empty rings, Jean picked up. "Hey Chief. Did you get outta the hospital yet?"

"Yeah, but I'm having a little trouble." He gritted his teeth as another bolt of pain shot through him. "It's my leg. The prosthetic's messed up the skin pretty badly, and I can't walk very well. Think you could give me a lift back to that hotel room I was staying at?"

Ed could hear Jean already getting his coat on. "Sure, Chief. Where're you at?" Ed told him and he said he'd be there in about ten minutes. Ed went back into the store to wait.

About three hours later, Ed was on the phone again, this time calling Winry. Her reply was crisp and businesslike. "Rockbell's Automail, how can I help you?"

Ed gripped the phone. Would she be able to tell the difference? "Hey Winry, it's Edward."

Cue the yelling. "You broke it again? I swear, if I have to make your arm from scratch again-"

"No, it's my leg this time. I kind of outgrew it." Pretty close to the truth, although he didn't say he'd replaced it with a worse model. "I just need you to take a look at it, and my arm too. Neither seem to fit right anymore."

She answered in a much quieter, but still forceful voice. Gate, he'd missed that voice. "Alright. How soon can you get here?"

"Sometime tomorrow. I'll catch the next train, so I should get there around midmorning. Goodbye." He hung up. _Well, that went better than I expected. I just hope she knows it's me. _

The train ride was boring, as always. Why was it that no matter what train he rode, it was always boring? Seriously, with the things America had cooked up…no he wasn't going to think about that. He'd think about how he was gonna explain this. Now that was an interesting topic.

By the time he reached the Resembool station, Ed still didn't have anything resembling an explanation. But hey, when had any of his plans every worked. And since whe had he planned things anyway? Okay, maybe this required more delicacy than a punch or yelling match, but still. _Guess I'll just wing it. How bad could it be really?_

Thirty minutes later, he had his answer. Bad.

It wasn't that Winry had hit him especially hard with her wrench, or that Pinako had shouted him into the ground. They hadn't. They hadn't even recognized him. They'd just seen his limp and assumed he'd been a customer of some other shop that didn't do as good of work, so he wanted to switch mechanics. They'd asked him to come back another time because they were currently expecting a long-time patient and didn't want to make him wait when he showed up. How did he explain to someone that the person they were waiting for was right in back of their house?

Finally, he gave up and decided to just say it. He walked back around to the front and knocked on their door again. Winry answered, a slightly agitated look on her face. "I'm sorry, but we can't treat you right now. We're waiting for another patient." Then she grumbled, not entirely to herself, "He's actually late. Where is he?"

He wouldn't get a better chance. "How about right in front of you?"

She looked back up at him, eyes widening as she took in the familiar eyes, hair color, and faintly sarcastic smile. "Edward?"

He reached down and hugged her. "Yes. I missed you, Winry."

**This was for FullmetalAlchemist64. Didn't want to make you wait. The poll is still open, but I'll have to shut it down after the next chapter. **

**The next poll will be on which female character Ed makes fall for him first as revenge against Mustang always calling him short.**

**I LOVE REVIEWS!**


	7. Fully Returned

Winry rushed back into the house to get Granny with Ed trailing behind. He had to duck slightly as he entered. He looked around, and for once wasn't surprised by the lack of change. It was still neat in the front, then automail-covered in the other rooms. But it had always been that way. The same grizzled old face completed the picture as Granny Pinako came into view. "Well Ed, have to say I'm surprised. Looks like you finally grew."

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yeah. Took a couple years, though."

Granny sat down in a nearby chair. "Well, why don't you tell us about it?" So he trundled out the severely watered-down story he'd given Al and the rest. It was missing most of his service in the American military, and the trouble he'd had afterwards, but he did leave in the humorous bits about the ladies, along with his plans on how to pay back Mustang.

Winry laughed at that, although a little shocked at how much he'd learned about women. After he'd finished giving them the details about how he'd fooled the Ice Fuhrer, he broached the subject of automail. "Anyway, I'll need some better prosthetics than the ones I've got now. The arm's metal and functions pretty close to automail, but the leg's a pain. How long do you think it'd take to whip up a couple limbs?"

Winry laughed. "Always in a rush, huh, Ed? Well, you'll probably need new ports too, so it should take about a month. You'd better call Al to tell him you'll be staying a while." Which he did right after their talk.

Al picked up right away. "Hey Brother. So how did it go?"

Ed shrugged. "Alright. For once, she didn't hit me. I'll need to stay a while though, since I need new ports and the leg and arm could take a while. They had a set all ready to go, but it was the wrong height!" He frowned. "It's like they didn't expect me to grow a single inch!"

Al laughed through the phone lines. "Ed, a foot is not an inch. I'll tell the Colonel for you. See you when you get back!" And he hung up.

Ed removed the phone from his ear and replaced it on its hook. Now all he had to do was survive two more automail surgeries. Oh joy.

But first there was something he had to do.

He went into the front room, found Pinako, and told her where he was going. She just nodded and told him to hurry home after he was done. He walked up the hill, still limping heavily. Den joined him before he got too far. The man ran his human hand along the dog's coat. Now Al could feel that fur just like he could. He kept up his awkward gait until he was in between the rows of graves, standing before the all too familiar granite slab.

"Hey, Mom. It's been a while, huh? At least, for me it has. You're probably surprised to see me all grown up like this." Dark spots began to litter the stone before him. "I got Al's body back. He's still as thin as a rail, but he's happier. I wish you could see him." He stopped talking and just knelt there for a while, letting some of the pain of those last five years out in front of his mother, even if it was just her headstone.

After about ten minutes of silence, he remembered something. He gently touched his gloved palms together and brushed the grass with them. Lilies sprang up slowly, and arranged themselves in a neat circle. He pinched their stems and set the wreath underneath her name. "I'm glad to be home, Mom."

He headed off again, but not in the direction of Winry's. There was a different hill he needed to see. He stopped at the foot of it and looked up. He couldn't even tell that a house had once been there, although the tree had thickened since that fiery night. He wondered if there was still a bit of rope left on it from the swing that Hoenheim had tried to make for him and Al. It had probably rotted away a long time ago, he thought.

Den barked at him. Ed looked down into canine eyes full of concern. Gate, did he really look that depressed? Even the dog felt sorry for him. He headed back to Winry's, back to the only home he had left.

After dinner that night, Winry and Pinako took his limb measurements to ensure that his new automail fit perfectly. He tried not to, but there was no holding it in. He started laughing.

Winry gave him a sharp jab with the metal tip of her tape measurer. "What's so funny?!"

"You!" The exasperated look on her face brought on another bout with his head thrown back, eyes closed.

If Pinako thought about it, she could see a little of why she was laughing. Both Winry and she had been surprised by how much he'd grown. They had probably looked fairly ridiculous.

Once Ed calmed down enough to stop shaking with the force of the laughs, they were able to take some accurate measurements. Winry went into the basement to collect the parts she'd need and Pinako showed Ed a room he could stay in. He smiled at the old lady. "Thanks Granny. It's good to be home." She just smiled and left him to unpack.

**My thanks to Guest for being a great editor and finding my mistakes. I went and corrected all of them, please feel free to do that again. I don't have a beta, so this is all just me.**

**Thanks again to those who reviewed, especially Fullmetalalchemist64! Based on the Poll, Ed will be getting glasses soon, and I already fitted in the limp you wanted. That'll stick around until he's fully adjusted to the new leg.**


	8. The metal in Fullmetal

The next day, Ed tried to find some excuse for not undressing fully for the surgery for his ports. "You're just doing the leg today! I'm not taking my shirt off!"

Pinako gave him a stubborn glance. "Don't be a pain. We need to see more of your skin to gauge how much blood you've lost. We can't do that if you're covered up! You'll take it off!" Her voice had ascended in volume until the last words were shouted at him. She wasn't going to bend on this.

Ed sighed. "Fine. But I'll be lying down when you come in. And I'm not turning over." He went back into his room, closing the door softly behind him.

That surprised Pinako, just a little. She'd expected him to slam the door, like he usually did when things didn't go his way. She shrugged her shoulders. Maybe he was a man on the inside as well. But they way he'd started when she told him about his clothes…was he trying to hide something?

About an hour later, Winry pronounced that the leg port was ready for installment. Pinako went to get Ed. She found him in on the front porch, sitting on the bench with his hand buried in the thick fur around Den's shoulders.

She noted that he wasn't wearing his trademark black, but a button-down white dress shirt with tan slacks. With his hair in a high tail, he looked a lot more like his father, except for the metal sticking out of one of the sleeves. It really was a poor model. She would have been surprised if it had moved at all. And she didn't even know what his leg looked like.

Well, she'd be finding out soon. She called his name and he turned to face her. "We're ready for the operation." They walked through the house in a kind of companionable silence. Pinako frowned a bit when she saw just how badly he was limping. "What's with that leg?"

"Oh, this?" Ed stretched down to rub the stump. "The skin's been aggravated since I left the padding out a few days ago. And the leg doesn't really fit my height, since it's an older model."

They got to the room and Pinako ushered Winry out. "You can change and lie down on the bed. Call us in when you're ready." And she shut the door behind her. They waited for a bit until Ed called them in.

When they came in, he was lying on his back on the operation table in just his boxers. Attached to his stump was a badly formed leg prosthetic made out of…was that plastic? Not Pinako's idea of a working leg. She slipped the stump out of the contraption, pulled her tools closer, and started working.

If he'd been strong before, Ed was straight out stalwart now. Forget screaming, he didn't even whimper throughout the whole process, although they would need new sheets on the table from where Ed's clenched fingers had torn holes in the fabric. When they were finished, Winry went to help him up, but he waved her away. "Just leave the door open. I'll get out when I'm ready. Do you have crutches I could use?" Pinako pointed to a rack across the room. "Of course. I'll just be a minute."

Winry wanted to stay and make sure he was alright, but Pinako pulled her away and into the kitchen. She set her granddaughter to the task of peeling potatoes for the stew that night. The girl attacked the brown objects like they'd broken the automail she'd made for them, whatever automail a potato could need. "I just don't get why he wouldn't let me help him," she muttered under her breath. "I've always helped him recover before."

Pinako left off cutting the meat and put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Ed's not a boy anymore Winry. And it's not just his height either. He's grown strong. You saw that."

But Ed was thinking the exact opposite. _Why didn't I just scream instead of tearing holes in the sheets? _He thought as he ran the damaged cloth through his flesh hand. Then he laughed to himself. _At least Granny and Winry kept me awake for it. _ _I hated how they knocked me out for that other one. I woke up three hours later and had no idea what they'd done to me until I…no, don't think about that right now. I've gotta get dressed and go down and join them before they start worrying. _

He slipped on the button-up in a heartbeat, but paused when faced with the slacks. Should he put them on like normal and tie the bottom up, or roll up the pant leg and let the new port get some air? Finally he decided to just put them on and go ask Granny. He pulled them up over his good leg, then slowly eased the new wounds and port into the other, fastening it closed and reaching for the crutches Winry had placed within reach.

Once he maneuvered himself down the stairs and into the kitchen, he called Granny over and asked her about the pant leg. Without a word, she bent down and tied it in a knot. "It's better to keep it covered and warm. Helps it heal better."

"Thanks Granny." Ed slipped an arm off one of the crutches and put it around the old woman in a gentle hug. "It's not easy doing this by myself." He drew away, and Pinako knew he had been talking about more than the clothes.

About a week later, once his blood levels were back up and the pain was dying down, they installed his arm port in much the same manner. A week after that, they fitted in the new limbs Winry had been working on and Ed started the rehabilitation. He'd told Granny that he'd only be staying for a month and a half, so they did the more basic exercises best for successful nerve integration and decided to let him work on things like dexterity and hand-eye coordination on his own.

To Ed, having automail limbs again felt just as good as having a flesh arm and leg. Compared with all the different prosthetics he'd tried over the years, this was the closest to having his original arm and leg back. Every once in a while Winry would catch him with a smile on his face, but she couldn't understand why.

A month after the insertion of the new leg and arm, Ed was waiting at the train station for the train back to Central. He'd done what he'd needed to here, now it was time to face the military grindstone again and do some good for once.

** Cari-Ed would never flirt with Hawkeye. That's what he meant when he talked about which Targets he wouldn't try to hit. Although if readers ask for it, I can have her be a coconspirator in a major prank on Mustang.**

**I love Reviews! What you liked, what you didn't, anything!**


	9. The Uniform

During the train ride back to Central, Ed spent most of the times doing the smaller arm exercises Winry had taught him and planning how best to carry out his revenge on Mustang for all the short jokes. _The first thing I'll need is the uniform. But which girl? _He ran through a list of women he knew had been attracted to Roy Mustang, Flame Alchemist, but came up completely empty-handed. Who would go along with something like that and not end up with a broken heart?

Oh well, maybe the best way to do it was to get the uniform and just wing it from there. Still, that simple request was bound to get a hilarious reaction from someone he remembered as a teen who shuddered at the very thought of wearing one of those blue brands. Still, he'd rather have blue than white. But before that, he would have to visit Al. So, when he got out at the Central station, he headed for the hospital first.

Al greeted him with a smile. "Brother!"

Ed pulled up one of the chairs beside him. "Hey Al. How've you been?"

His younger brother grinned at him. "Okay, I guess. Sometimes it gets boring, but Colonel Mustang and the rest visit me a lot, and I'm getting much stronger." He lifted up his arm. "See?"

Ed examined the appendage. Sure enough, the bicep that had been almost nonexistent was now a prominent feature of the arm. Now that Ed was looking for it, he could see other signs of growth as well. His hair was springy and had a brighter sheen, and his face didn't look quite so pinched. It was good to see Al recovering. And so he told his brother.

Ed looked past the teen for a moment and noticed the absence of a second patient. "Where's Mustang?"

Al put his arm back down and said, "He left about two weeks ago. His wounds weren't very serious, apart from his eye, and he's taking a lot of medications to prevent infections. He visits whenever he has to get looked at, so I see him more than the others."

Ed grinned. "So the idiot's back in the office. Good." Al wondered at the sly look in his brother's eyes. What was Ed planning? It was still lingering as Ed said, "I got my arm and leg back, although Granny said it I'm not supposed to do any heavy work until about three months after the surgeries." He unbuttoned the cuff of his right sleeve and pulled it up to reveal the shiny new arm. "You should have seen their faces when I told them it was me. Winry looked like her eyes were gonna pop outta her head." He smiled at the memory.

A nurse came in to get Alphonse for his daily physical therapy session. Ed left after promising to visit again later, and headed for Central Command. He wished he had a camera. Mustang's expression was going to be priceless.

He wasn't the only one. When Fullmetal requested a uniform in front of the whole office, Havoc gaped so much his cigarrette fell to the floor, Breda got a coughing fit from his inhaling his coffee along with a gasp, and Fuery fell out of his chair. Ed successfully withheld his laughter and inwardly wished Hughes could have been there with his constant camera. This would have made great blackmail for several months at least. He nonchalantly asked, "I don't see why it's such a surprise. I've been in the military for three years at least, and I've never been issued a uniform. Where should I take care of the paperwork for ordering one?" Mustang's expression most closely resembled a deer in headlights. And then Ed crashed into him. "Besides, you know what they say about women and uniforms."

As it turned out, there wasn't a whole lot of work involved in getting one of the blue outfits. He went to the suppliers, was measured to indicate his size, and picked up a clean version in the storeroom next door. He took the plastic-wrapped package, thanked the female secretary at the door, and walked to his dorm room to change.

The uniform actually had several different pieces. There were two black shirts, one a tightly fitting, short-sleeved affair, the other a black version of his current button-down. There was of course the blue jacket, which had that odd way of fastening and was about as long as the black one he'd worn during his days hunting for the Stone. The pants seemed fairly loose, and the boots he'd been issued had thick soles and allowed for the bottom of the pants to tuck in. The hat was strictly for formal occasions, a good thing. It would have completely ruined his bangs. Most of the clothing Ed got on with little problem, opting for the shorter black sleeves. Then there was that other bit.

It looked like a cross between a skirt and coat tails that had been cut in half so only the back part was left. Ed couldn't see the purpose of having this extra piece of clothing follow you around like a cape gone wrong. Really, what was the point of the thing? The uselessness of this item had been one of the reasons he'd refused to wear it in the first place! Still, he fastened it on the waistband of the pants and put all the pins, bars and tassels in the right places, hopefully.

Ed had to admit, the thing wasn't as bad as he'd originally thought. The jacket and pants were warm and allowed for a variety of movement, and when he added his white gloves his automail was completely hidden. Even the looseness of the pants was comfortable, seeing as how it kept the fabric from rubbing against his newly healed surgery wounds. The black shirt was made of a smooth material that helped soothe his back, still sore from that other surgery. He wondered if it would ever completely heal.

Oh well. Even if it didn't it was just one more scar. Okay, maybe a couple dozen more scars, but still. It couldn't be any worse than a metal arm or leg. Actually, the uniform was almost made for someone like him.

Edward realized what he'd just thought. Of course the military would make something like this, something comfortable for those who had scars and wounds. It produced people like that on a regular basis, so the least it could do was provide clothing and hid and comforted such scars, giving everyone a more level playing field. Maybe the military wasn't as heartless as he'd made it out to be.

He pulled on the boots and tucked the bottom cuffs into them. The air caught in the left pant leg heated up quickly, easing some of the ache from the operation. Yes. Getting a uniform had been a good idea. It felt like he'd just crossed a threshold into something bigger.

** Firefly264-There will be absolutely no lemons in this story. I stink at writing any sort of romance. Your idea is my top candidate for revenge, although I have some touching moments planned for that too.**

** fullmetalalchemist64-You don't like Mustang much, do you? I'm getting help on how guys flirt to make the revenge sequence as realistic as possible.**

**I'll have to shut down the poll soon, so vote while you are able!**

**I LOVE REVIEWS!**


	10. Glasses

Ed left his dorm and headed for the main building. If he remembered correctly, his duties in the Amestrian military were basically completing missions that were assigned to him by Mustang. He didn't know if that would change or not with the difference in his age, but he couldn't think of anywhere else he should have gone to find out. So he headed for Mustang's office.

To get there, he had to walk through the gates, front doors, and about a hundred yards of hallways and stairs. He smiled to himself. Many of those places were manned by female officers, which would give him plenty of opportunities to test this new style. From there, he'd form a plan of action for his revenge.

To his smug satisfaction, many heads turned in his direction as he passed. He was just passing through a corridor that linked the main hallway to the Investigations department when someone came barreling out with a armful of heavy books and smacked right into him.

After recovering slightly from the shock, he said, "Let me help you with that," and began picking up the books and placing them in a neat stack. He turned back to the person he'd bumped into. "Sorry about that. I wasn't expecting someone to… wait, is that you Sheska?"

The brunette adjusted her glasses and stared at him. "Edward?"

He laughed. "Yeah. I guess you heard about the change, huh?"

"Sure, but…" She gave him a once over, lingering for a moment on his eyes. "I didn't think they were so drastic. How are you coping?"

Ed was puzzled for a moment until he remembered that the story he'd fed Armstrong, the one about experiments, would be the official one. Everyone would still think he was sixteen inside. He smiled reassuringly and said, "It's fine. I do enjoy the height, though." He turned back in the direction he'd originally been headed. "I've actually got to get to the Colonel's so I'll see you later Sheska." He gave her a casual wave and headed off again. Little did he know the bookworm would be stuck thinking about him all day.

When he walked into the office, he got the most vivid reactions yet. They were almost as bad as the ones from when he'd asked for the uniform! Granted no one fell out of their seats this time, but it was still funny to see them gaping. Ignoring the others, Ed walked up to Mustang's desk. "Got a mission for me?"

Mustang got over his appearance quick enough to hand him his stapled orders. "Yes. There's been a minor incident with metal transmutations in downtown. The alchemists have been caught but they need someone to fix the damage."

Ed waved him off. "Yeah, yeah." The blonde reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a thin case. He opened it, removed his glasses, and snapped them open. He was about to put them on when he noticed Mustang staring at him. "What?" Then he noticed what the man was looking at. His eyes were fastened rectangular frames in Ed's hand. "These?" He waved the glasses around, snapping Mustang out of his trance. "Yeah, I started wearing them a year ago. All that late night research finally caught up with me." He slipped the frames on and started reading again, this time unaware that Riza was staring at him intently.

It wasn't just that Ed was wearing glasses, which was shocking enough on its own. Those glasses looked almost exactly like the ones Hughes used to wear; only Ed's were reading glasses. Had it been intentional? Hawkeye couldn't help but wonder. But the blonde walked out of the office before she had the chance to ask.

She caught him having lunch in the mess about half an hour later. He was munching on a sandwich from the deli and had the papers spread out over the table, reading glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. She sat down across from him with her coffee mug. "Edward." The man looked up, expectant. "Why are you wearing the same glasses Maes Hughes did?"

He leaned back from his position hunched over the papers, letting his spine pop as he did so. "It was either that or wear oval ones like my old man. I already look too much like him, and I wanted to remember Hughes. He'd been like a second father to me, so I wanted to have at least one of his characteristics." Then he bit his lip. "I understand if it upsets you, but I not changing this just because you ask me to. I've been wearing these for over a year now, and I've grown used to them."

Riza realized she'd been scowling and relaxed her features. "I'm not upset Ed. It was just surprising, that's all." He nodded and looked back down at the papers spread out across the table. Riza did too, and noticed several areas circled or highlighted in red. "You've been working these over."

He finished chewing and answered, "I've been highlighting all the important details. This," He pointed to one highlighted paragraph, "shows me what areas I'll need to fix. This," He pointed to a different sheet, this time circled, "tells me the original design of the area so I can make it like it was instead of something completely different. I should be able to finish it before five."

Riza smiled gently. "The paperwork, you mean?"

Ed balled up the wrapper for the sandwich and threw it in a nearby trashcan. "No, the mission. It's not that hard." He gathered up the different papers and got up from his seat, papers tucked under his arm. "I'll see you tomorrow, Hawkeye." And he walked out of the mess.

Riza was a little baffled. Ed had taken at least two days to do a job like that before, and they'd always gotten complaints about his reconstructions. The kid's taste hadn't been the best. Now he was reading his orders thoroughly, taking note of exactly what needed to be done and what the finished product should be like. Ed had changed, and Riza wasn't convinced it wasn't a good thing.

**Thanks to all reviewers, old and new. Keep at it, it's very encouraging!**

**I've had to close down the poll so I can move ahead with the story. I'm gonna try to do all of them, in different ways of course. How did you like Sheska?**


	11. Revenge is Sweet

For the next few hours, Ed restructured roads, lampposts, and even some street signs and buildings. It felt good to be using alchemy again. He hadn't really used it since he'd returned, and metal was his element, after all. Doing the familiar work gave him some time to think.

He had an objective right now; taking down Mustang. But what was he going to do after that? It wasn't like he could just go back to looking for the Stone. Al had his body back and Ed didn't mind his missing limbs. Heck, after all this time it would probably feel weirder to actually have the flesh arm and leg. No, he'd stick with his automail for good now.

He was pretty sure he wanted to stay in the military. It was practically the only life he'd known, even in the other world. He had taught for a brief while, but it hadn't suited him nearly as well as the research and missions had. But he still felt that he needed a goal, something to work towards even inside the military.

Oh well, he thought as he fixed up the last of the twisted structures, a shop sign that had been slightly deconstructed in one corner. He had a while yet to find that. Heck, he was only twenty-one.

As he walked back to Command, his thoughts turned to his grand "Teach Mustang a Lesson" scheme. He knew which woman the Colonel had his sights on the most; Riza Hawkeye. He also knew she would not be an easy win. Heck, he never would have dreamed of attempting it under normal circumstances. But then he thought back to that day in the hospital when they'd been waiting for the Fuhrer.

She had been mildly disgusted by his flirting at first, but when he'd explained why he was doing it, her complaints had stopped. It was possible that she thought Mustang was due for an ego check too. Maybe she could be his coconspirator, not victim. Then, once the joke had gone far enough, they could explain to the Colonel that it had just been teasing and no lasting harm would be done.

Ed grinned. This could actually turn out to be more fun than he'd thought!

Back at Command, Riza was watching Roy flirt with yet another female secretary who'd passed by with a folder for the research department. Did he even know what kind of reputation his actions garnered him with the other soldiers? It wasn't just about stealing girlfriends anymore. People were beginning to suggest that he would be going after the Fuhrer next, hoping to sweet talk The Iceberg, Armstrong's most recent nickname, into giving him a promotion. She was beginning to hope Ed would start his planned revenge soon.

Ed entered the room just as Mustang was wrapping up his fraternization session in the hall outside his office. To his disgust, the woman was actually blushing. Her fingers grew clumsy as Mustang leaned in closer and she dropped the folder she'd been holding. Mustang was standing in the doorway leading to his office when Ed moved in.

He picked up the folder and gently held it out to the woman. "Excuse me miss, but you dropped this," he said while flashing a brilliant smile.

The woman dropped her gaze and started to stutter. "Th-thank you." She took the folder without looking at him.

"You're welcome," crooned Ed, smile still flashing. "You're absolutely welcome," he added as he gently placed his hand over her own as she clung to the folder for dear life. Then she let out a girlish squeal and practically skipped towards Research. Ed noted with satisfaction that Mustang had seen the whole thing.

Mustang walked stiffly through his outer office into the inner one, shut the door behind him, and sat down at his desk. The man was in shock. He had just seen his childish, immature subordinate pull off one of the best pick-ups he'd seen from someone other than himself. How could Fullmetal get that kind of reaction with only a few words and a single gesture when he'd spent the last five minutes sweet talking the woman and had only gotten her to blush?

Then a thought struck him, a thought that chilled him to the bone. What if the reason was him, not Edward? He reached up and touched the new black patch.

Now that he knew Mustang would believe he was capable of lady-killing, Ed moved on to the next phase of his plan. He went into the office where Riza had been watching the exchange. He needed an excuse to get her out of the office so the other guys wouldn't overhear and spoil it. Ed glanced at the clock. Perfect. It was 6:15, fifteen minutes until the working day was over and just at the right time to make a dinner date believable.

He turned to the gunwoman and turned up the charm with the smile he'd just exhibited for the secretary. "Hawkeye, you wouldn't happen to have any plans for this evening, would you?"

The others stared in disbelief. Not having seen the scene outside, they had no idea what Ed was capable of until he was trying it on the second most dangerous woman in Central. And to their surprise, Hawkeye answered with a crisp, "Not that I know of. Why?"

"I was wondering if you might want to visit Alphonse with me later, and maybe grab something to eat on the way." Okay, Riza was confused now. Hadn't Edward told her he WASN'T going to try and seduce her? But then she saw how his eyes drifted meaningfully towards the door to the inner office.

She nodded her understanding. "Of course. I would love to see Alphonse."

Ed grinned, with more mischief and less forced charm than the earlier smile. "Great. I'll be waiting at the front in case there's anything you need to finish up here." And he walked out of the room with a spring in his step. Revenge was sweet, especially when no one but the intended felt the wrath.

**How was the flirting sequence? No one's ever flirted with me, so I was writing this based on other's experience. Does it seem too contrived?**

** my splendid Guest Reviewer-Thank you. Your criticisms are exactly what I was looking for. I put them into effect as soon as I saw them, I hope you liked the revised chapters.**

**I LOVE REVIEWS!**


	12. Or Maybe Not?

It was the day after Riza and Brother had come by to visit him. Al had been surprised when he'd seen Brother in the uniform, but he couldn't escape it anymore because of his new height. They'd had a lot of fun, Ed making him laugh by talking about the different reactions he'd gotten from Mustang and his crew, with Riza adding details where needed. They'd even brought some alchemy books for him, which Al had been immersed in when his present visitor had arrived.

Mustang had been very considerate, asking how Al was and if there was anything he could do for him. He still had half an hour before he had to go in to get his eye looked at, but had come early to see the younger Elric. But after the pleasantries had been exchanged, Mustang hadn't said much of anything. He seemed to be deep in thought, and Al noticed that he kept touching his patch.

Finally, after watching him rub it for what seemed like the hundredth time, Al asked, "Is your eye hurting you?"

The man quickly jerked his hand away from his face. "Not at all. What makes you think that?"

"It's just that you keep touching it. I wondered if it was alright."

The man stood and smiled. "No, it's fine Alphonse." He looked at the clock across the room. "I have to leave for that appointment now."

Al smiled at him. "Isn't this your last one?"

"Yeah." And he left the room.

As he walked to the waiting room, Roy's thoughts returned to the subject he'd been thinking about before Al pulled him back to his surroundings. He just couldn't stop thinking about what had happened this afternoon between that secretary and Fullmetal.

Alright, he did give the kid some credit. His moves had seemed totally natural and appropriate for the situation. But then again, his had too. His had probably been smoother, if anything, with all the practice he'd had. So why had he gotten the better reaction? What was so different between Roy Mustang and Edward Elric?

The answer he finally settled on caused sorrow to rise up until it was clogging his throat and making it difficult to breathe. It was his eye. His eye was the scar, the sign that he wasn't as perfect as everyone had thought. It wasn't just his looks that he was thinking about. It was what a botched job looked like, a failure that everyone could see.

No wonder Fullmetal got a better reaction. His scars were more like badges of honor than brands. He had never failed, never slipped up. Maybe that was what Riza found so attractive.

Yes, he knew that his beautiful blonde subordinate was now going out with Fullmetal. Jean had told him all about their dinner when he'd come in the next day. Alphonse had even let it slip about how they'd visited him together. There had been a time, before he failed and was branded, that he thought he might have a chance with the woman he had loved for years.

But now there was no chance, none. Because he had slipped up. And this patch, this brand would never let him forget it.

About half an hour later, Ed came to see his younger brother, but without Hawkeye this time. He rapped his metal knuckles on the door frame and said, "Hey Al. How've you been?"

He sat up and smiled at his brother. "Alright. Mustang was just here a while ago. He seemed down about something."

"Oh yeah?" said Ed was he walked over to his younger brother's bedside. He chuckled to himself. "I bet I know what it was about." So he told Al about the little scene he'd pulled with the secretary, the 'date' he'd had with Riza, everything.

Al was shocked, to say the least. Ed hadn't told him anything about this, despite the fact that everyone else seemed to know all about it. After being shocked and them berating him for learning something so unethical, he decided to pop his brother's bubble of mirth. "I don't think that was why he was upset."

Ed stopped laughing at Al's protests and looked at him quizzically. "What do you mean?"

"Well, he kept touching his patch and muttering something about a brand."

Edward Elric was a genius at alchemy. But his intelligence was not limited. He had learned a fair bit over the last few years, and one thing he knew for sure was that scars produced by your own failure or stupidity were not something you got over lightly. He'd been through the process enough times to learn that, first with his arm and leg, and then with his back. Those scars had weighed heavily on him until he had learned to accept and move on with them. It helped that his could be hidden so that you never knew they were there.

But Mustang's wasn't hidden at all. Sure, it was covered by the patch, but that strip of cloth was a scar in itself. It was his first major scar, as far as Ed knew. And it was still just healing. He hadn't even started the process of accepting them yet, probably. And Ed had gone and escalated the problem with his little plan of revenge. Gate, how stupid could he get? He got up and told Alphonse he would see him later. He had to find Riza.

The Lieutenant was right outside the Personal department when Edward practically jumped her. "I need to talk to you. It's about the Colonel." He waited for her to finish her business and then pulled her to the break room as fast as possible. He closed the door and turned to face her. "We need to stop doing this. Now."

Riza laughed a little, not quite understanding the expression on Ed's face. "Why? We haven't got a reaction from him yet."

"Yes we did. It just wasn't the one I was expecting. It's worse. Just…trust me, we need to stop this."

Now the seriousness was evident in his voice. "Alright Ed. But why?"

The man ran a hand through his tied –up hair. "It's…It's not funny to him. I didn't think about the kind of state he was in before I started this. I might have really hurt him this time, to the point where I don't know if he can snap back. I kicked him while he was already down." He lowered his gaze to the floor. "I can't believe how stupid I was."

**Thank you again, FullmetalAlchesmit64 for reviewing! You are a constant source of encouragement.**

**I know you were all expecting an all-out battle, which I might still put in, but Mustang still has something to recover from and I plan on having Ed help a whole lot with that. So enjoy while these two grow to understand each other.**


	13. Scars

**Cari, If you thought Ed cared in the last chapter, you're gonna love this. **

**I LOVE REVIEWS! And I haven't been getting many lately, so if you read this feel free to flame or gush all over me. Just as long as you comment!**

Ed and Riza stopped pretending to be a couple and went back to their everyday routines. He even stopped flirting altogether, although he did make polite conversation when it was expected. He completed all his missions on time and turned in accurate and concise reports, like he had in America, although these weren't research results. It did no good.

Mustang stopped coming out of his office during work hours. Paperwork was brought in to him by Riza and orders were sent out the same way. When they did catch a glimpse of him, he was sullen and downcast, the black of the patch a stark contrast to his increasingly pale face.

The men tried what they could, and even Riza gave it a shot. Jokes rang through the outer office and more girls than usual turned up for his signature, but nothing seemed to help, especially since none of them seemed to understand the problem.

Finally Riza went to Ed for help. "Do you have any idea what has him so upset?" The man nodded sagely. "Then why won't you tell us?"

He sighed. "It's not something you can help with, because none of you understand what he's going through."

"And you do," replied Riza, almost shouting. She was growing angry at his passive attitude. "So why don't you help him?"

He sighed again, but there was a trace of sadness in it this time, which cooled the woman's fury somewhat. "Trust me, I would if I thought he would accept it. But he still sees me as a child. All of you do. He wouldn't believe I have experience with this even if I showed him proof."

"But you could try." Ed looked down into Riza's face. There was desperation there.

"Riza, do you love the Colonel?"

She blinked. "Of course. I've loved him for a long time now, although I never told him."

He smiled. "Then I'll try to help, but only if you promise to tell him what you just told me once I'm done. Trust me. That will help more than anything I could ever say." And with that, he walked out of the room and left a slightly confused Hawkeye just standing there.

It took him a few hours of mindless paper filing to come up with a decent plan for helping Mustang. A lot depended on luck and timing, but if he could pull it off, it would snap Mustang out of this depression and get him ready for Riza's confession. And that was something he desperately needed to hear right now.

So Ed put it into action that afternoon. As soon as the workday was over, he slammed the door to the inner office open with a cheesy grin on his face and said, "Roy, you look like something the cat dragged in. Come on, you need a shower." And with no further warning, he dragged the loudly protesting Colonel off to the shower rooms.

Once they were inside, Ed checked to make sure no one else was using one and quietly alchemized the door to the room closed. No one else needed to see this. Mustang watched him curiously. "Alright, what is this about Fullmetal?"

Ed shook his head. "Showers first."

Roy refused to budge an inch.

Ed sighed and walked around so that his back was to the man. He began undressing from the feet up. Soon everything was off except his black button-down shirt. "It's about scars, Mustang." And he let the last piece of clothing fall to the floor.

He heard the gasp and knew exactly what the Colonel was looking at. Thick, ropey scars covered his back, some red, some purple, all vivid. Then the other man asked, "What happened?"

"When I was experimenting on something dangerous in the other world, I started to get really sick. I started to get ugly spots and rashes on my back from contact with the materials we were working with. It turned out to be skin cancer." He resisted the urge to turn around and glare at the man who was openly gawking at his back. "The only way to keep it from spreading to the rest of my body was to remove the afflicted areas. So they did. But my partner wasn't so lucky. He got cancer in his lungs. Removing a lung is a risky business at best, and the surgery has to take place during the earliest stages of the disease. He died because I didn't notice what was happening fast enough and get him to a hospital to be treated. Now these act as a reminder."

Then he did turn. Ed met Mustang's cold blue eye with two steely golden ones. "You're not the only one who's failed and been branded for it. Mine are just easier to hide. And one scar is no excuse for shunning the people who care about you." Ed stepped into one of the stalls. There was no sound in the room besides the water running, and the rustle of clothes as he put his uniform back on. He undid the alchemic lock and left the room with Mustang standing there with the image of a crisscrossed back imprinted on the back of his eyelid.

Roy felt like a fool. Of course others had been through the same thing. The first time he'd seen Edward, he'd been recovering from a scar just like his own. No, his had definitely been worse. And yet the kid, no, the man had come back stronger than ever and had grown up to fight and win the huge battle against the Homunculi, save his brother, and accomplish whatever he'd done in the five years he'd been gone. Compared to two metal limbs and a back like a jigsaw puzzle, one little slip of black cloth was nothing.

And his mistake hadn't been that bad either. He'd done what he meant to, hadn't he? Hadn't he killed Pride and helped Amestris free itself of the man's tyranny? Wasn't he standing here now, ready to help his country move forward? And he hadn't lost any of his men in the process. He stripped and entered one of the stalls, and when he turned on the water, he could almost feel the gloom slipping from his skin.

He stepped out and had the sudden urge to remove the patch and stare the scar in the face. No, maybe he wasn't ready for that yet. But he would do it, someday. Funny, how the one subordinate he thought was the furthest from him actually had so much in common with him. He stepped out of the shower room and headed back into his office, ready to kick into high gear and start helping to rebuild his country from the ground up.


	14. Exams and Uneasiness

The months that followed passed in a flurry of paperwork, but with a few noticeable events in the lives of the Elric brothers and Mustang's crew. About two days after Ed's confrontation with Mustang over the scar, Riza confessed her feelings for him and the two started officially dating. They had to stop at the courtship phase of their relationship due to regulations about engagements and such between soldiers. One of them would have to quit the military to make a marriage work, and neither one was ready for that just yet, but it didn't affect their happiness in the slightest.

Edward was a little harder to adapt to. Mustang had told them a little of what Ed had disclosed in the shower room that day, just enough so they wouldn't question him if they ever caught a glimpse of his back. So although they were curious, especially Al, no one pestered him. But other than that and the other obvious differences, like the glasses, they treated Ed like they had always treated him. There was just fewer outbursts and more slyness to his humor these days.

It felt wonderful to Edward to have his familiar place in the gang back. There were times that he could almost forget what he'd done during those five years and just pretend he'd spent it here, trading insults with Mustang and sparring with his younger brother, although he was still wary of hurting the recovering youth.

Al finally got out of the hospital about three months after Edward's return, under the condition that he would follow his dietary plan to the letter and get the prescribed amount of exercise. Ed watched him like a hawk to make sure he did just that, along with everyone else at the office. Soon he was so comfortable and capable in his real body, it was as if he'd never been without it. And it warmed all their hearts to see it, especially Ed's.

His brief charade with Riza was as close as Fullmetal ever got to having a real girlfriend, although there were plenty of women waiting to catch his eye. One time, when the Colonel was teasing him about his lack of interest in the other sex, especially when he had such honed skills, Ed snapped and told him the only reason he developed them in the first place was to get girls OFF his trail without breaking their hearts. He then smirked and noted that the Colonel had abruptly stopped as soon as he'd heard Riza confess. This remark earned him a scorched-off Flamel and a boot out of the office. But Ed still left grinning.

These routines carried them through the rest of summer and fall until winter rolled around, bringing with it the State Alchemist Exam for new recruits. Fuhrer Armstrong had strongly encouraged experimentation with bomb materials ever since she'd read the idea the morning Hawkeye burst into her office to tell her Ed was back. Whenever the subject was broached with Ed around, he seemed to tense up and excuse himself as quickly as possible. Mustang couldn't understand it and it annoyed him to no end.

Olivier had decided to make Ed's presence at the practical portion of the exam mandatory. It would give them courage, seeing the famous Alchemist of the People watching them, and would act to increase public opinion.

The day of the practicals dawned clear, freezing, and very painful for a certain blonde. Ed woke up with a throbbing pain in his ports from the cold and immediately set about making something to lessen the cold and by extension the aching. He finally devised two hot water bottles out of a rubber chicken that had somehow found its way into his dorm, probably someone's idea of a joke. At least it worked in his favor. The rubber was durable, and he could reheat the water whenever he needed to using alchemy. He suited up, reluctantly putting on the hat as well, and headed for the parade grounds where the test would take place.

The officials were standing in a circle around the ring. He'd been assigned a position next to Mustang, so he scanned the lineup for the irritant. Once found, he strode over to the man and stood beside him as he scanned the grounds, taking in the elements present.

Mustang studied the figure next to him. Ed had been acting a little odd recently, especially about the bomb issue. Well at least he seemed to be normal today. _I spoke too soon, _he thought as Ed suddenly tensed up behind him. Mustang followed his line of sight and saw a small pile of an element they had only recently added to the test. It was uranium. No one was really certain what the element was capable of, but they'd introduced it because one of the alchemists had asked for it. He decided to watch what happened and confront Edward later on the subject.

The candidates entered the building. Some just looked at all the different elements while others went straight for the ones they'd be using. Mustang noticed as Ed's eyes quickly fastened on the man headed for the uranium. He seemed to ignore the actions of every candidate besides that one person.

Then the man began slowly drawing a circle next to the pile. Edward tensed as he recognized the symbols the man was using. When he took a tiny set of tweezers from his pocket and put a portion the size of a grain of sand in the center of the circle, Ed bit his lip so hard it bled. But when he knelt down to activate the circle, Ed clapped his hands and touched the ground. No one noticed, but the ground the circle rested on shifted slightly, distorting the image just enough to disrupt the flow and halt the experiment.

Mustang looked at Edward, prepared to interrogate him. But he stopped. Edward was whiter than his gloves and trembling. He stuttered out an excuse of needing to take care of something back at the office and left as quickly as possible. Roy's agitation with the man grew. First it was the bomb subject, now this experiment. What was going on with Fullmetal?

**Thanks to Firefly and FullmetalAlchemist for terrific reviews once again. I love both of you!**

**I can't write romance at all, so I left all those touching scenes to people who can actually write them in favor of moving the plot forward. Now all the hints I've been dropping will start to make sense.**

**I LOVE REVIEWS!**


	15. Five Years of Pain

Since there had been a surplus of applicants this year, each department was given a list of candidates to decide whether or not they would pass. Mustang's crew was assigned to grade Mr. Adam Hosei to decide whether or not to allow him into the military. It was the man who had attempted experiments on the uranium, the one Fullmetal had sabotaged. Perfect.

The Colonel handed the man's file to his blonde male subordinate and watched as his whole body went rigid. His jaw clenched at once when he saw the man's photo. Without even glancing at the rest he threw the file back at Mustang and said, "Don't pass him." Then he turned to walk out.

"Why?" asked Mustang in a tone he knew would infuriate the blonde alchemist.

But it didn't. Ed didn't even turn to face his superior as he said "Amestris doesn't need him. He couldn't do anything."

Roy kept the lightness in his voice as said, "I don't know about that. The results he produced after you left the area were astounding, to say the least. Besides, his test scores and interview are up to par." Okay, so maybe he was stretching the truth a little. The man had only just passed the written exam and his interview was dubious at best. And Ed had been very successful in keeping him from performing his experiments, so much so that the man hadn't been able to do anything, even though he redrew the circle several times. It wouldn't be that outrageous for him not to pass if that was what Mustang decided. But this might help him get to the root of what was eating at Fullmetal. The man's attitude had been eating away at Roy so badly that he was ready to shake an answer out of him.

But what Edward said next raised his irritation to outright rage. "If you pass him, I'm resigning from the military."

That did it. Mustang jumped over his desk, whipped Ed around by the arm and shouted in his face. "What is wrong with you? Ever since the Fuhrer mentioned explosives you've been behaving like a scared kid! What happened to make you so afraid?"

Ed didn't react at all. He merely removed the Colonel's hand from his sleeve and said, "If he becomes a State Alchemist, I'll quit. That's all you need to know." He headed for the door again.

Mustang stood there trying to come up with some way to get an answer out of Ed. Finally, he played his trump card. "I won't pass him, but only if you tell me why you sabotaged him during the last part of the exam. " There. Now Fullmetal would talk for sure.

Ed halted in the doorway. He had wondered if it would come to this or not. And it had. He still didn't face Mustang as he said, "will you swear to that?"

"Yes. Just tell me what's going on."

Ed walked around Roy's desk and went to a window so that their backs were facing and there was no way Mustang could see his face. "When I was thrown into that other world, I ended up in a country called America. I had to find a profession, and fast, so I took what I knew about the elements from alchemy and applied it to their world, expanding it as I went. I became a scientist, a chemist. I read research that showed that everything is made out of atoms, which were made of neutrons, protons, and electrons. So I thought, what would happen if I deconstructed a substance into just those three components?"

Mustang was having trouble taking it all in. This was the first time Edward had really talked about the five years he'd been missing. And Mustang was beginning to realize just how long those five years had been for him. But Ed didn't allow for his superior's mental stumbling as he relentlessly continued his explanation.

"So I began to look for molecules that were big enough that I could deconstruct them and have enough material left over to study the separated components. Eventually I discovered uranium. It was the perfect material for my experiment, since the atom had so many neutrons and protons in its center, or nucleus. Eventually I found a catalyst that worked and split the atoms, and published a paper on my findings. That paper led me to my first meeting with Lewis."

Mustang interrupted him to ask, "Was he the one that…"

"The one that died, yes. Because I made the stupid mistake of tampering with things I didn't understand." Mustang heard the fabric in his gloves protest and the blonde behind him clenched his hands tightly. "I didn't know that uranium was a radioactive molecule, or that radiation was extremely dangerous to the human cell. After I deconstructed the molecules, the broken down material continued to put out radiation. Since we didn't know about that dangers, or rather, since I didn't take the time to fully research it and got too wrapped up in my own experiments, neither of us wore much protective gear while we were experimenting. That carelessness combined with the amount of radioactive material we were dealing with was what caused me to get skin cancer and cost Lewis his life." He let out a sharp laugh. "Lewis saw my symptoms early on and rushed me to a hospital, ignoring his own symptoms in the process. I was kicking back in the hospital while he was dying."

Mustang turned so he was facing Edward's back. The boy was hunched over and tensed up like he was trying to contain something. The man dreaded what he would say next; whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

"I published a short paper on our work with the uranium and hoped everyone would just forget about the research. But they didn't. America was at the tail end of a war with another country, Japan. And Japan wouldn't give up even though it was clear the country was going to lose. So the American military used my research with the uranium as a springboard for the Manhattan Project, the creation of the atomic bomb. I only realized what had happened when I heard that they had dropped it on Japan."

"My single research paper started a chain reaction that destroyed half the country. The explosion alone killed over 264,000 people, and I don't know how many died from the aftereffects and radiation. I don't even know how they'll survive after that." He turned to face the Colonel. Tear tracts shone like salty scars on his cheeks. "You think you're a monster because you wiped out Ishval. Well guess what? I killed ten times that many, with one damned research paper! And that alchemist is trying to do the same." There was no trace of apathy now. "I will not watch Amestris' enemies become another Japan. If you let him in, I'll kill him myself and destroy his research before anyone can lay a finger on it. I already made that mistake. No one else needs to." Ed began to tremble as if his whole body strained to contain something.

Mustang stepped toward the shaking figure and gently put his arms around the young man. And for the first time since he'd heard about Japan three years ago, Ed cried loud and long.

**Yes, I messed with history, Shamballa, and the end of FMA to make this work. Think it was worth it?**

**Thanks to Tosca, FullmetalAlchemist, Guest, and other Guest for the great reviews. This is the first story I've written where the reviews outnumber the chapters! I'm so happy!**

**Sorry if I didn't put in the elements you wanted, but I've had this planned for a while now. **


	16. And Now They Know

Mustang just stood there, letting the young man sob into the shoulder of his uniform. He knew what Edward was going through all too well. But it was worse for him.

Edward's guilt was built on a larger scale. So many more had died because of his actions, including someone that he'd known personally, worked with. So Mustang didn't try to tell him it wasn't his fault. What good would it do right now? Edward was still healing from this, the shaking frame in his arms showed that much. Instead, he said softly, "Alright, Ed. I won't let him into the system. I can even ban him from ever applying again. You won't need to face that here."

"You're wrong, Colonel Mustang." Roy stiffened around the blonde in his arms as the voice of the Fuhrer of Amestris blew into his ears. "He will certainly face it again, because Fullmetal is going to make those bombs for us." She swept out of the room and banged the door behind her.

Edward's knees gave way and he fell to the floor, slipping out of Roy's now rigid arms. He quickly moved to comfort him again, but stopped. Edward had broken out in a cold sweat and was breathing far too fast. Roy reached for his wrist and took his pulse. Also too fast. Edward was having a panic attack.

Roy grabbed Ed's arm and tried to get him on his feet. No one was in the outer office, since he'd waited for privacy before confronting the blonde. In the hallway, he bumped into Major Armstrong. The man almost broke out in his characteristic sparkles, but then he saw Edward and the state he was in. Without a word, the big man picked up the blonde and asked the Colonel, "What happened?"

"I don't know, but he's gone into shock. We need to get him to the infirmary." The two men started running for that part of Command.

Luckily, the medical staff at Command was used to cases like this. After Ishval, panic attacks had been a regular occurrence with the soldiers from that particular conflict. As soon as one of the nurses laid eyes on Edward, she knew what was wrong and ushered them into a hospital room and told Mustang to try and calm him down by talking to him.

The man started rambling, talking about anything he could think of; the weather, his most recent date with Riza, how much he hated the new Fuhrer. It didn't work. When the nurse came back in, Edward was unconscious. Armstrong looked concerned but puzzled. He had no idea what could have brought this on. He had only been walking down the hall after an uncomfortable moment with his sister, who was going the other way, and hadn't heard anything that had been going on before he'd seen Mustang with the nearly comatose Major.

Mustang was trying very hard not to panic himself. He'd experienced an attack just like this after his time in Ishval, so he knew what could happen during such an attack. But Edward hadn't been able to combat the panic at all, which suggested that his condition was much more serious than Mustang's had been. But after hearing what Ed had been through for those five years, and then with the damned Fuhrer rubbing it in his face, Mustang couldn't blame him for having such a strong reaction.

Armstrong hung his head. "I'm glad that Alphose Elric didn't have to see this."

Mustang jolted. Alphonse! He had to know about this. And so did everyone else, he realized. But they were sure to have questions about why Ed suddenly was susceptible to panic attacks. And he had sworn to Ed that he wouldn't disclose what the man had told him to anyone else. What did he say?

Finally, he decided to tell them only that Edward was in the hospital and wouldn't wake up. Questions would have to wait until Fullmetal was conscious again. He left to ring Alphonse.

Inside the black of unconsciousness, Edward was having what could only be described as an extremely powerful nightmare. Piles of uranium were exploding in Lewis's face, eating away a bit of his smile with every blast until there was nothing left but his eyes. And those eyes condemned him even as they smiled. Then the image changed. Pictures of bombed Japan from the newspaper articles flashed past, each accompanied with screaming voices, asking him why. Why did he do it? Why did he stick his nose into something he didn't understand? Why hadn't he paid attention to the war around him, why had he been naïve enough to think people would just ignore his research? Why? Why?! WHY?!

He unconsciously began clenching his hands until his fingernails cut into the palm of his left hand and he started bleeding on the sheets. The horrible sound of metal scraping against metal echoed around the hospital room as his right hand did the same. His head started thrashing, whipping from side to side in an effort to shake the images loose. A nurse came in, gasped, and quickly called the doctor from the hall. There was a pain in his arm and then nothing.

When Edward woke up, he was surrounded by concerned faces. Al, Mustang, Riza, the guys from the office, even Armstrong was looking at him like he was as fragile as glass and had only just escaped shattering. How little they knew.

He turned to Mustang and asked, "What happened?"

He fidgeted, something Ed had never seen him do before. "Well, you had an attack."

Ed sighed and fell back onto his pillows. "Not again. Gate, I hate those things."

Al leaned forward. "What things, brother?"

"Panic attacks. I have them almost every time someone brings up the subject of the…well, what happened to Japan." He tried not to look anyone in the eye. "I try to avoid the subject when I can, and I can talk about it myself without going into one, but…what the Fuhrer said yesterday, it…it forced me to remember things I've tried so hard to forget since I came back. That's probably what triggered it."

Al put a hand beside Ed's face and forced eye contact. "What did she say, brother?"

If anyone else had asked, Ed would have blown them off or simply not answered. He'd only told Mustang because the man had all but threatened him for the truth. But Al just wanted to know. "She said she was going to force me to make an atomic bomb."

Al didn't want to press his brother further, but he asked anyway. "What's an atomic bomb, Brother?"

So Edward told them everything. How he was dropped in the middle of another war, how he met Lewis and later watched him die, how that same research killed hundreds of thousands more, and finally what Olivier was going to force him to do.

He was surprised how good it felt to talk about this. There wasn't a hint of the panic that had engulfed him before. The world was all clarity. And relief. Relief at not having to hide, to pretend, flooded his veins and made it easier to continue. But he was the only one who felt anything positive.

The unanimous reaction was horror. Tinged with anger, sadness, shock, and even a little pity, but horror was the overwhelming emotion that filled the room. But not at Edward, Jean thought. The kid had only wanted to know, just like he'd always wanted to know.

Falman looked over at Fuery who was almost fainting from the horror of Ed's history. What would it be like to lose him, the same way that Edward had lost Lewis? The thought didn't bear thinking about, but Ed had had to do more than just think about it. He'd lived it.

Breda found his eyes drifting to the man's back. No wonder the kid had brought Mustang out of his funk about his scar. He'd been branded a failure too, but on a much more massive scale.

Riza's hand fastened on her closest weapon, and handgun strapped at her waist. And Olivier had had the guts to throw him right back into it. She wondered what part of the woman's anatomy would make the most painful target. Because she would shoot her, Fuhrer or not.

Al stood stock still for most of Brother's story. It was so similar to when they'd tried to bring Mom back. The need to know, the enthusiasm for the experiments, he could see Ed in every stroke. Even the cancer made awful sense. It was the price the two men had paid for their discoveries. But then Ed told him about Japan. Brother began to curl in on himself when he described what the military had done, but before Ed could shut him out completely, Alphonse reached out and drew him into a tight hug.

Mustang told the story after that, including the details about his and Olivier's comments. He told the whole story, without embellishment or leaving things out, so they would know why he had asked Edward to tell him. When he'd finished, half the people in the room were crying and the other half looked ready to shoot someone.

**Thanks to Cari, Fullmetal64, and my excellent Guest for incredible reviews. Encouragement and criticism, I couldn't ask for a better mix!**

**As much as I like Olivier, I had to keep the story moving and find a way to make Ed tell EVERYONE, not just Mustang. And I do think she would do this, although she might not be aware of how bad it could be for her country. I will be enlightening her, though, so don't worry. Amestris does NOT get bombs.**


	17. Olivier gets Fooled, Again!

After about five minutes of silence in the hospital room, Ed spoke up. "I'm not letting an atomic bomb into this world. I don't care what the Fuhrer wants. I'll resign, escape to another country, and even kill myself if I have to. But I won't let anyone else become a victim of that research. No one deserves that."

Al tightened his grip on Brother. The only other time he'd seen Ed like this was after they discovered the truth about the Philosopher's Stone. And it had been easier then, since he had Al to share the burden. But Ed had been carrying this atrocity alone for at least half the year he'd been back. Well Alphonse wasn't going to let him be alone anymore. "Whatever you decide, I'll do it with you Brother. But don't kill yourself."

Then Breda spoke up. "I don't think the Fuhrer would want the bomb if she knew the whole story."

Mustang snapped at the man. "She does. Don't you remember what I told you? She was listening at the door."

"But you don't know for how long. She could have just heard the last bit, about how much the bomb hurt that other place. She might not know what it did to Chief."

Ed looked at the man like he was a lifeline. "You mean if I told her everything, she might not make me build another bomb?"

Riza walked forward and slipped an arm around his shoulders. "It's possible, Edward. But you shouldn't be the one to talk to her. You might start panicking again." Then she stood back up and every spine in the room went ramrod straight. They knew that look. "We'll tell her for you." At that Jean could have almost pitied the Iceberg.

Fuhrer Olivier Armstrong sat in her office the following morning, trying to plan out just how to force the Fullmetal man into a corner. Judging by what he'd said, he wouldn't want to make the explosives for her. What could she use against him?

The boy's record wasn't the best. Damages, broken rules, and trespassing incidents littered his history in the military. If his flaunting of rules had been severe enough, she could have threatened him with jail. But he'd stayed just inside the lines. Besides, he had quite the reputation with the common people, and was a fairly young man, so treating him like a criminal would not increase good public opinion.

She could lure him with promises. A promotion for himself or his comrades -he was close with that Mustang fellow and his crew- might persuade him, but she doubted it. If the boy had wanted to rise through the ranks, he could have already done so. And it wasn't guaranteed that the boy cared enough for the others for indirect benefits to work.

Thinking of Fullmetal's relationships made her remember the younger Elric. Alphonse, wasn't it? He was in a delicate condition at the moment, although out of the hospital. She doubted he'd be safe from threats and possibly kidnappings. But if the information that she'd used him to influence The People's Alchemist ever got out, that would also paint her in a bad light, even within her own military. She hadn't reached this office just to be shunned.

But threatening the boy's brother was the only thing that might work, and it wouldn't be that difficult to keep quiet. All Olivier would need would be a decent cover story for the boy's disappearance from the public and military eye. His ailing health could supply that easily enough. She decided to call Fullmetal into her office tomorrow.

But he didn't come. Olivier waited for him for three hours until she finally got up and went looking for him. The boy worked in Mustang's office when he was in Central, so she checked there first. The only one there was a new recruit, Samuel Castro, who told her that the entire crew was at the hospital. Rather than wait for them to return or send someone else, Olivier went herself.

The Hawk's Eye watched as the Fuhrer walked out of the office building and towards the library. A small handheld radio was activated and the transmission sent. "The bear has left her den and is heading for the wolves. Prepare the howling."

Flame received the message in the restroom closest to Fullmetal's hospital quarters. He passed the message onto the others and they took up their positions, one across the hall, two inside the hospital room.

There was a small snapping sound as the Fuhrer stepped onto Ed's floor. She took three steps before the two inside the room began having their supposedly heated discussion.

The first voice, explosively emotional, said "What do you mean he's not waking up? Fullmetal has duties, doctor!"

The answering voice was oddly strained but very calm and professional. "I'm sorry sir, but the mental trauma from the experience is worse than we thought."

The first voice answered. "Trauma? From what?"

The second voice, which Armstrong had labeled "doctor", answered again. "You mentioned the Fuhrer had asked him to make another of the bombs. From what the man with the black hair told me, the bomb was about ten times as powerful as he'd expected and destroyed an area equal to half of Amestris and killed nearly half its inhabitants. And that was just the first blast. The continuing effects of the radiation poisoned another third of the remaining population, which was equal to all of Amestris. And Edward had no idea how many he would be killing.

"That said, it's amazing he didn't go into a coma at the prospect of making another one. I don't think Mr. Elric would survive another mention of such an object, let alone the task of making one."

The first voice was no longer angry. It was more cautious, and a little shocked. "What do you mean, wouldn't survive? He's the best the military has! He has to survive!"

The second voice was back, now insistent. "The psychological trauma runs deep, to the point that he has a panic attack whenever the subject of the bomb is brought up. He told me this himself. I also did some studies on his back." There was a shuffling of papers and the voice continued.

"The scars are similar the scars of burn victims whose burns had to be removed because they were infected or dangerous, particularly if they had begun to form blisters on the surface. He's told me that the scars are the result of a similar disease he contracted as a product of the experiments used in the creation of the bomb. He also said that the people within even a hundred miles of the detonation of the bomb site experienced similar conditions to his own, but on all parts of the body, not just the skin."

The second voice continued, but Olivier was no longer listening. She'd heard enough. She walked back down the hall and out of the hospital. She had some thinking to do.

Riza alerted them when Olivier walked back into Central Command. Mustang left his lookout post in the nurse's station, a position he'd sweet talked his way into, and went to tell Havoc and Breda that they could leave Edward's room. If they hadn't completely changed her mind, the exaggerated details they'd given her should have at least thrown a damper on the idea of atomic bombs.

** SapphireClaw-That is one of the most creative ways to swear I've ever heard of. Glad you're enjoying it.**

** QueenCari1129-I actually grabbed the panic attack idea from the fan fic "You're Not My Real Dad!", although I did change which character got them.**

** ToscaThorCat- DON'T! She's just being a good Fuhrer!**

** Guest- Don't worry, I did give a better explanation about his scars and the experiments that caused them. I think messing with pure uranium is powerful enough to produce such results, although I'm not a radiologist. Thanks for helping clean up my grammar mistake and story fumbles, especially the clothes in chapter 13. Hope you like my changes.**

**I LOVE REVIEWS!**


	18. It is ON!

The idea of the bomb was never mentioned again. Olivier wrote it off as something that caused too much damage to be suitable for smaller conflicts and was too dangerous to transport outside Amestris for the larger ones.

That suited Ed just fine, although it was still a while before things went back to normal. At first, everyone treated him like glass, especially Alphonse. But they did seem to finally understand that he wasn't the fiery teen they'd known previously. Sometimes that meant they took him more seriously, especially about missions and such.

That was the good part. The bad part was Havoc's and Breda's constant attempts to pair him with this or that girl in Central. They'd cornered him in the mess hall while he was reading again, this time about someone he actually knew, Sheska.

Jean leaned in so his face was merely inches from Ed's. "Come on, Ed. Don't tell me you haven't noticed how her face goes all red when you're around. Just ask her out!"

He pushed his glasses further up on his nose. "I'm not gonna ask her out because I don't like her. Besides, where would I even take her? All the girl ever does is read."

Ed should have just stopped at the refusal. Because that made it sound like he'd thought about where he'd have taken her. That idea made the two men even more insistent.

About half an hour later, the three ran through the door to Mustang's office, Ed in the lead shouting. "No, I'm not gonna do it!"

Mustang put aside the folder he'd been going through after making sure Riza had also been distracted by Edward. It was too early for bullet holes, and he was curious about what could make the young man shout like that. It wasn't his normal defiant yell; there had been irritation mixed in, and plenty of it. And an outburst was always fun to watch, so he increased the problem. "You won't do what, Fullmetal?"

Jean answered before Ed had a chance to. "Ask Sheska out. The girl's mooning over him and he won't even look at her. So we thought Ed should take her out on a little date and test the waters a bit."

Edward was two shouts shy of punching the irritating Lieutenant, but Riza's hand rested casually on her pistol. So instead, he asked, "Why would I take her out on a date when I don't like her? I'm not going to toy with her feelings."

Mustang smirked. "I doubt you could if you tried, Fullmetal. You skills are so _small _in comparison to my own, after all."

The double insult was too much for Ed. "WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL THAT HIS DATE HAS TO USE TWEEZERS TO SHAKE HIS HAND?! THAT'S IT!" He stormed up to the Colonel's desk and slammed his hands down on the wood. "I'LL TAKE SHESKA ON SUCH A GREAT DATE THAT EVERY WOMAN IN CENTRAL COMMAND WILL BE ASKING TO GO OUT WITH ME!" He stormed out of the room, determined to find the bookworm. Mustang started laughing. If he went to ask her out with that expression, he'd scare the woman half to death!

Apparently, Edward was aware of his wrathful face. He slipped into a bathroom on his way to investigations and schooled his features into his 'perfect gentleman' look complete with dazzling smile. Satisfied, he entered the department and asked for Sheska. He flirted a little with the private at the front for practice, but immediately switched his attention to Sheska when she emerged from the piles of files.

Sheska had been in the middle of copying a case file when Angela, the woman who normally occupied the front desk, had told her the Fullmetal Alchemist was waiting for her outside the department. A nervous shiver ran up her spine and the word she'd been writing was suddenly covered in hearts. She almost squealed like a teenager and stood up so fast she knocked her chair over. Then she hurriedly brushed off her uniform, checked her hair and glasses, and asked Angela "How do I look?"

The older woman smiled at the flighty bookworm. "Fine. Now don't keep him waiting." She gently pushed her towards the exit and sat down to finish the case file.

When Sheska entered the area where Ed was waiting, he looked at her and the woman almost melted. Ed kept the gentle smile in place, but inwardly he was smirking mischievously. This smile was the one Lewis had taught him after they'd been shunned by the girls at the bar one night because of Ed's gloomy look.

"Come on, Ed. You'll never get a girlfriend with a face like that. Try this." The redhead had lowered his eyelids just a little and let a barely-there smile creep onto his face. He looked over at the girl who'd huffed at them and a light blush dusted her face. He turned back to his young friend. "See? Give it a shot."

After several such trips to the bar, Ed had learned the smile he was currently using to make Sheska look like her head was on fire. It was even more powerful now, because the smile actually held all the fondness of the memory of Lewis and his teasing. Then he walked over to her and pitched his voice a little lower than usual as he said "Hi Sheska. I was wondering if you would be free tonight."

She went from blushing red to nervous white so fast Ed was scared she might faint. Instead, she said, "Why are you asking?"

"I was wondering if you might like to go to dinner with me later this evening. I found a lovely place called Domenic's and hoped you might check it out with me." _Hook, line, and sinker, _thought Ed as she started blushing again. He was playing gentleman mixed with nervous boy perfectly and it was driving her crazy. She would say yes in three…two…one.

"Of course I'll come! When would you like to meet? I live in the dorms so we can just meet by the gate."

Got her! "How about seven? That'll give us both time to get ready." Now for the finishing touch. Ed gently brushed her shoulder in a gesture that could have either been friendly or something more. "I look forward to it, Sheska." He walked away, grinning. The kid gloves were coming off. Mustang was going to regret he'd ever called Ed short.

** ThorCat-If you must. Thanks for reviewing!**

** SapphireClaw- Olivier only heard what I put in the last paragraph of that chapter, the one where Ed turns around. **

**To all my other reviewers, THANK YOU!**

**I still LOVE reviews!**


	19. A Date

Ed picked Sheska up right at seven. The man had to wonder if the woman had ever been on a date before. She was still wearing her hair in pigtails and had on a loose multicolored blouse with a checkered skirt. Absolutely awful date clothes.

Ed, by contrast had dressed semi casually in a white button-down and dark blue slacks. With hair in a high tail like his dad used to wear, he looked every inch the perfect gentleman. Exactly what he was going for.

The taxi he'd called was waiting for them. He opened the door and helped her in, then circled around and let himself in. Once he was settled, he decided to make the first move of the evening. He brushed Sheska's bangs out of her face and told her she looked beautiful. And he was surprised as the faint pink that dusted her cheeks made the compliment reality.

They pulled up in front of Domenic's. The restaurant was brightly lit, and the yellow and red décor made it cheery and comfortable. There was a table of women enjoying a drink and a family in another corner, looking like they would leave soon. Not many couples would choose such a lighthearted atmosphere, but it was perfect for a trial date like this.

He stopped at the front desk and asked for a table. A middle-aged woman was behind the counter and smiled at the young couple. The girl was clinging to her date for dear life, but he didn't seem to mind. What a sweet young man, she thought, as she came out from behind the desk and pointed them over to a table close to a window with a view of the street. A waiter came a few moments later and handed them menus.

"See anything you like?" Sheska looked up from the menu and into her crush's perfect golden eyes. Oh, those eyes. She could get lost in them. "Sheska?" She snapped back to reality as she realized that Edward had asked her a question.

She quickly scanned the menu and her eyes pounced on the list of fish dishes. "I think I'll have the salmon with lemon." Sheska bit her lip. _I hope that's not too unexpected, _she thought, hiding behind her menu.

Ed laughed a little, to assure her. "That sounds delicious. I think I'll have that too." He folded his menu again and laid it in front of him. Then he noticed Sheska still hiding behind her own. He put a finger on top of it and pulled it down gently until he could see her face. "Do you want to look at the drink menu?" He waved the much smaller booklet where she could see.

She hurriedly put the menu down. "S-sure." Then a thought struck her. "Aren't you underage?"

He laughed, this time a honest chuckle. "Well, I am technically a soldier, so I'm allowed, technically. Just don't tell anyone." After that, Sheska seemed less nervous and they were able to have a stimulating conversation about alchemy books until the food arrived.

It really was quite good. The salmon was coated in a fruit sauce and served with a lemon wedge for extra flavor. It arrived on a bed of wild rice with asparagus lightly braised on the side. Ed had also chosen a rather spectacular wine. Not extremely expensive, but it had a good flavor and a low alcohol percentage so both could enjoy it without worrying about what the other soldiers would say if they arrived back at the dorms drunk.

The conversation changed from books to the dishes. How long do you think the asparagus had cooked for? This wine tastes like cherry, doesn't it? What should we get for dessert?

Two peach cobblers and a coffee pot later, Ed was walking Sheska back to the dorms. He'd chosen a closer restaurant on purpose, knowing they could drive there, but a walk was always a good way to end a date, especially when you were both still sober and not planning for anything else to occur. He'd seen the opposite happen enough times with Lewis. That man could have shoved Mustang into total oblivion, not just given him a run for his money as Ed had been planning to do.

But plans changed. He'd enjoyed the night much more then he'd thought he would. After the initial shock of her clothing, Sheska had turned out to be an excellent conversationalist about the things that interested both of them, alchemy and books. She'd enjoyed the meal as well, keeping up a steady stream of talk while eating politely. And her smile really was pretty. Perhaps…

They were in front of the women's dormitory. Sheska had started leaning her head against Edward's shoulder about halfway, and he had to shake her slightly from her relaxed state. "Sheska, we're here." She jolted away from him, ran up the stairs and was about to escape into the dorms from embarrassment of almost falling asleep standing up when Ed stopped her. "Would you like to do this again sometime?"

She turned back. Edward Elric was standing at the foot of the stairs, looking up at her, waiting to hear if she wanted to go on another date with him. Could the night be any better? "Sure, Edward. What were you thinking of, exactly?"

"I don't know, exactly. But I enjoyed spending the time with you, so I thought we might go out again sometime. What do you think?"

"I'd like that too, Edward. Goodnight." She calmly opened the door, walked down the hall, and slipped into her quarters. Then she laughed, spinning, until she got so dizzy that she fell over onto her bed. What a night!

**Thank you again for the heartwarming reviews. I know I usually don't upload this fast, but this chapter was BEGGING to be written.**

**I LOVE REVIEWS!**


	20. Follow-up

Angela had to look twice to assure herself that the girl who walked into the Investigations Department the next day was in fact Sheska. She'd pulled the top half of her hair back in a barrette and left the rest hanging. The bottle cap lenses were still in place, but the eyes behind them seemed to carry a new spark.

Her work seemed slightly different too. Sheska didn't get lost in piles of books as often as usual. Instead, Angela often apprehended her in the middle of a day dreaming session. This called for a little interrogation session.

The woman dragged the bookworm down to the mess hall, sat her down in front of a sandwich, sat across from her and pulled her chair forward until she was almost inches away from the girl's glasses. "Alright, what happened?"

She immediately started to blush. Angela's eyes darkened. If Major Elric had been anything less than a gentleman, she'd- "He was really nice." Sheska's words pulled her fellow soldier's mind out of the gutter and made her stare at the brunette openly.

Now she was even more interested. "So where did he take you?"

"Just to dinner at Dominic's, that restaurant he mentioned. We talked about alchemy books and the food and walked home together afterwards. Then he said he'd like to take me out again."

Angela frowned. "He didn't make a pass at you?"

Flustered, Angela shook her head so hard it was a wonder she didn't get dizzy. "No, no! He was really polite and nice."

The older woman relaxed. She'd thought for sure they had another Mustang on their hands. But Elric hadn't done anything untoward, and had treated her to a very nice evening. Angela smiled. This romance might be a good thing for Sheska, help draw her out of her books and into the world more often. Their conversation descended into office talk, neither of them aware of the many women sitting very close to their table with coy expressions.

Later that day, Ed walked through the entrance to Investigations. "Hi. I was wondering if Sheska was still around."

The woman smiled at him. Oh no. Cougar alert. He brushed past the feline with a quick, "never mind, I'll get her" and escaped the claws for the safety of the bookshelves.

Okay. His target had been to make women notice him, but he'd forgotten the dangers that came with it. How was he going to combat this?

His answer popped out from between the rows ahead of him and jumped back in. Sheska. She stuck her head out more cautiously and said, "I didn't know you were here, Edward."

Gate, she looked cute like that. He smiled. "You know, you look lovely with your hair like that." Her blush deepened as she stuttered out a thank you, then asked him why he'd come to the office. "I found a new bookstore while I was on break and thought you might check it out with me tomorrow. It is Saturday tomorrow, so we wouldn't have to rush. We could make a date out of it; maybe grab some lunch on the way."

This time, she didn't blush. Sheska stepped out from between the shelves. "That would be nice, Edward."

He smiled, genuinely this time. "Great. I'll see you around eleven, then. What are you looking for?" He gestured to the shelves.

She sighed. "There's this one book that's too high for me to reach. I looked for a stepladder, but couldn't find one."

"No need." He brushed past her into the shelves. "Which one did you need?" She pointed to a book with a green cover and red lettering. Ed reached up and easily brought it down. "Here you are. I'll see you tomorrow, Sheska." And he walked out, leaving her with the book in her hands and an even bigger crush.

As Ed walked back to his office, he wondered. Why had he asked her on another date? The first had gotten the desired result, to get him noticed. Was it that he didn't want to hurt the girl's feelings and let her down more gently? No, that couldn't be it. If it was, he would have broken it off with her as soon as possible, probably when he walked her home last night.

Could it be that he actually wanted to spend more time with her? He thought over their previous evening together. The conversation hadn't been particularly special. Alchemy books were something he could have talked about with Al any day. It could have just been that he was missing his brother, who'd been sent back to Resembool to finish recuperating. But he could have talked with almost anyone about books, even Mustang. So why was it so much fun when he did it with Sheska?

He suddenly remembered her face when she stuck her head out from between the shelves. Her cheeks had been just slightly dusted with pink, which highlighted her eyes, which had been open and inquisitive. Then she'd smiled, and her face had somehow delighted him. Was it possible he was starting to like the girl?

He'd never been in a romantic relationship before, as much as Lewis and now the guys at the office had teased him. He didn't know how it felt to be in love, or care for someone who wasn't family or a close comrade. So it was possible that he was falling for her and just didn't know it.

Well, another date wouldn't hurt either way. And besides, the effects of the first one should have hit Mustang by now.

And they had. Oh yes, they had. Mustang was now faced with a stream of women in his office, all suddenly with paperwork that needed Fullmetal's signature. Some of those women had been his past targets. And they wouldn't go away! When that kid got back here, Roy was going to light the skirt of his uniform on fire.

When Fullmetal actually did arrive, he was whistling, to Roy's amazement. He sat down as if oblivious to the women vying for space in front of his desk. Jean, also trying to ignore the ladies, asked him what he was so happy about. The kid grinned insufferably. "I got a date with Sheska. She's really cute for a bookworm and pretty close to my age."

Although composed outwardly, Roy's mental jaw dropped. In one fell swoop, Edward Elric had crushed any older woman's hope, marked himself as taken, and prevented any possible targeting of Sheska by putting all the blame on himself. Roy knew what a master looked like, and Edward was it.

**I'm going to start answering reviews via PM, so this space is reserved for guest reviews.**

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	21. What is THIS!

Roy couldn't help himself. Edward had just been too good yesterday in the office. So when he 'overheard' Edward telling Riza about the date he had set up with Sheska for the next day, he immediately looked at his calendar and noticed that he had nothing planned for Saturday. And his curiosity was boiling over. That was how Mustang ended up walking three yards behind the pair that was currently the talk of Central Command.

He was of course, dressed to look inconspicuous. A tan greatcoat and a fedora of the same color masked his beautiful black hair and almost equally dark eyes. He looked no different from the other businessmen on the street, and his trademark gloves were concealed in his pocket. Walking purposefully but slowly enough to maintain a safe distance between him and his quarry, Mustang followed the two into a bookstore not far from Central.

He laughed a little at the boy's taste. It was the first rule of womanizing to never let your date's attention drift from you. That was exactly what Edward was doing, walking the girl into the equivalent of a three-ring circus.

If they'd gone into a restaurant or movie, he would have perhaps contented himself by sitting in a nearby café and simply waiting for them to exit. But no. They'd gone into a bookstore, where Ed would have the challenge of his life trying to maintain her attention. This he had to see.

He found the two browsing the cookbook section, to his surprise. It did make sense, though, Mustang had to admit. With Alphonse in Resembool, Edward would need to learn to cook his own meals, and he was asking his girlfriend for help. It made him appear incredibly humble, adorable, and trusting, Roy realized. This tactic would never have worked for Roy himself, as he tried to seem impeccable, but someone with Edward's young countenance and more innocent view of the world could pull it off without a hitch. This is exactly what Fullmetal was doing, and he was doing it perfectly.

Mustang watched as Sheska selected some easy starter's cookbooks for Ed and they headed to the back of the store where less mainstream books were kept. This was where Sheska would bury herself in books, literally, and Ed would lose all her attention.

How little the Colonel knew about Edward. In thirty seconds, he had picked out a book neither of them had read and was sitting side by side with Sheska on the floor, both of them pouring over the page and pointing phrases and passages out to each other.

Mustang took careful note of the way Fullmetal sat so their legs just brushed each other, and how he made her laugh at what was surely some boring alchemy book. Oh, he was keeping her attention, alright. And he was doing it in completely natural ways that revolved around something they both had an interest in. To the casual observer, they would have looked like a pair that had already had their first anniversary, not two young adults on their second date.

He walked out of the bookstore without even registering the names of the titles he passed. He had to know what technique Fullmetal was using to put Sheska at ease so well and still keep her interested in him. There would be questions when he came into the office on Monday.

Ed watched Roy leave out of the corner of his eye. So, the man had been worried enough about the competition that he'd decided to check out Ed's techniques. As satisfying as it was to know that the Colonel had followed him, he also found it annoying. Did he do this to all of his male subordinates, or was Ed just a special case? Or maybe it wasn't him.

Mustang had stolen girlfriends before. In fact, his stunts with Jean's possible love interests were what started Edward on the warpath in the first place. But now that he actually had a girl he cared about, the reality of Havoc's situation kicked in.

He looked over at Sheska, still bent over the book. She was a very pretty girl, as he was beginning to realize, and bright too. There was no reason Mustang wouldn't try to get Edward back for his little jaunt with Hawkeye by stealing the bookworm away from the blonde alchemist. Anger suddenly boiled inside him. If Roy laid as much as a finger on Sheska, he'd…

Wait, what was he thinking? Edward laughed. He was acting like a jealous boyfriend. Sheska looked up at him questioningly. He quickly pointed to a phrase and said, "This here is completely incorrect. Seriously, who told this guy helium had four electrons?" To his relief, Sheska started laughing. It had been a bit of a stretch, but Sheska knew enough chemistry to find it funny. Thank the Gate she was smart as well as pretty.

Again, Ed had to ask himself why he'd just thought that. Sure, Sheska looked cute when she blushed and yesterday when she'd worn her hair down it had made her look lovely…and the sweater she was wearing today really brought out the color of her eyes. No, he was doing it again!

He, Edward Elric, child prodigy, with inhuman powers of focus, was being distracted, by a bookworm girl a year older than him, no less. Sure he'd picked her to be his partner in taking down Mustang, but it was just like what he'd done before with Hawkeye, right? Right?

He was still confused as they walked out of the shop with a bag of recipe books for him and a few dusty old tomes for Sheska. They headed for a nearby sandwich shop, Maconi's, for lunch, walking side by side. "Um," Sheska said, hesitating slightly.

He looked down and smiled at the girl. She looked even cuter from this angle. But he pulled his thoughts out of Sheska Land long enough to ask, "Yes? What is it?"

She blushed. "Well, I…" Instead of continuing to speak, she pointed to the couple walking in front of them. The woman had her hands wrapped around the man's arm.

Edward understood. He grabbed the brunette's hands and twined it around his upper sleeve. He was a little uncomfortable doing so with his automail arm, but suddenly switching sides would have been awkward. And awkward was one thing you did NOT want to be on a date.

But when she did touch his arm, it was like an electric shock ran through it and into his heart. His eyes widened. What had just happened?

**Sheska is young enough that, with the new Edward, there isn't that large of an age gap. I always thought she was 19-22, which puts her right around Ed's 21 years.**

**Thank you QueenCari1129,FullmetalAlchemist64, SapphireClaw, and my latest reviewer, ScarMaskWarrior for your splendid support of my story!**

**And again, I must thank Guest for all the radiation and medical research he/she did for me to help strengthen the details of my chapters. **

**Thank you all.**

**I LOVE REVIEWS!**


	22. Figuring it Out

Edward flopped down face first on his bed in the dorms, completely and utterly exhausted. He'd managed to maintain his front of the perfect gentleman for lunch with Sheska and the walk back to the dorms, but he was so messed up inside he was surprised he'd even remembered the way to the dorms. What was happening to him?

First, there had been the incident at the bookstore when he suddenly transmuted from a lady-killer only acting the part of crushing boy to something that very closely resembled the real thing. Yes, he knew what that looked like. He'd seen Havoc and later Lewis with the same characteristics. Instant protectiveness, strange reactions to touch, noticing every detail about your crush…yep, all the symptoms were there. But it wasn't Havoc who was having them.

It was him.

He suddenly felt elated. A goofy grin started spreading across his face. Now it all made sense! He liked Sheska!

_And I couldn't have picked anyone better to start liking, _he thought as he rolled over onto his back and stared at the ceiling. The girl was massively intelligent, but not arrogant like him. She was also sweet and funny, someone you'd like to have around. And there was no denying that she was very cute, perhaps even beautiful if she put a little more effort into it. Now that Ed knew he liked her, everything good about her shone like an alchemic reaction, only it was transmuting his own feelings.

Edward sat up.

Feelings.

WHAT IF SHE DIDN'T FEEL THE SAME WAY!?

He dug his hands into his hair and was sorely tempted to begin pulling at it.

His hair. What if she didn't like long hair?

He immediately cut the thought off at the base. If she didn't like it, then she'd tell him. And he might change it depending on how much she didn't like it and what her reasons were. "Calm down," he told himself. He took his hands out of his hair and rested them in his lap. "There is no reason for me to be thinking like this. Sheska had a crush on me a long time before I started dating her. She probably still feels the same way about me. And if I really want to know I can just ask."

Oh Gate. How was he supposed to ask her something like that?! He got up and started to pace.

It wasn't like there was a guidebook on how to date a woman. Sure, he had his techniques, but they didn't work when you actually liked someone. They were for defense more than anything. And it wasn't like Lewis was here to help him this time.

He could ask Mustang.

The thought was squashed as soon as it entered his head. He'd followed them on their date, for crying out loud! The man would laugh his head off if Ed told him he was actually in love. That left none of his male friends who were successfully dating someone.

Maybe he didn't need someone who'd already dated, just someone with a clear head and good people skills. Ed smacked himself in the forehead. Alphonse!

Three minutes later he was in the Communications department ringing the Rockbells.

Al picked up after the first ring. Ed thanked the Gate that it hadn't been Winry. Al's teasing would be bad enough, but Winry would never let him live it down. His brother opened the conversation with a cheery, "Rockbell Automail. How can we help you?"

Ed smiled into the phone. It felt good to talk to his younger brother again. "Hey Al. It's Ed."

"Brother!" Now the voice on the other end sounded angry. "Why didn't you call sooner? I told you to call me every week!"

Ed started raising the other hand in a sign of surrender before remembering Al wouldn't see it over a phone line. "Well, things have been pretty busy here, Al."

"Oh, really? What sort of busy? You haven't been giving the Colonel a hard time, have you?"

"Sort of, but that's not what I wanted to talk to you about." And he steered the conversation into Sheska land and kept it there for a full ten minutes. "And now I don't know how to ask if she likes me or not! What am I supposed to do?"

To his surprise, Al was laughing over the phone. "This isn't funny Al!"

Al stifled his giggles as best he could. "Sorry Brother. It's just…I didn't think Sheska would be the one you would have asked this about."

"Oh, you mean Winry. Well, she's not exactly available anymore, seeing as how she's five years younger than me and my little brother has a massive crush on her," Ed retorted, grinning as his brother's flustered answer.

"N-no I don't! I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, come on Al. Just man up and tell her. You'll never know until you…" Suddenly Ed realized what he'd just said. Gate, he was stupid. "Thanks Al. I think I just answered my own question. Talk to you later." And he hung up.

Ed let out a sigh of relief. There was no great formula he'd been missing. His feelings could stand on their own, just like Al's feelings for Winry could, if he ever got up the nerve to admit it. He'd give Sheska some more time to adjust to being around him and liking him, and then he'd ask the question of whether or not she liked him. It would take time, but he wasn't going anywhere.

**This will be the last chapter I upload for a while. My family's going camping for a weekend and while I can write all I want, there's no internet so uploading will be nonexistent. I promise at least ONE chapter when I get back.**

**QueenCari, thanks for that lovely review from last chapter. All of you continue to provide great support and critiquing when needed, especially my unofficial Beta Guest!**

**By the way, do you mind if I delete some of the critiques I've already imputed, Guest?**


	23. Age Bares Its Fangs

Sheska was standing in the middle of her dorm room surrounded by an assortment of dresses. It was two weeks after he'd first asked her to Domenic's and the dates had been a lot of fun. But Edward had told her they were going somewhere different tonight.

That added adjective had given Sheska the idea that she should dress up a little more for this date than she had for the previous ones. And she knew just how bad her fashion sense was, so she'd asked Angela for help. Her coworker had been on plenty of dates but never really found the right person, which meant she had plenty of experience. That was how she ended up bringing over a cartload of dresses and having Sheska try on each one.

After trying on mauve, forest green, and even some black dresses, Angela had decided that dark blue was Sheska's best color. The bookworm balked at the more revealing dresses, so Angela had to settle for something less eye-catching. She did, however, insist that the girl put on at least a little eye shadow and do something other than pigtails with her hair. Sheska felt better knowing that this would be a fine night, at least until she said what she had to.

When Ed got his first look at Sheska, he was reminded all over again why he was slowly falling for her.

She was wearing a dark blue dress with cap sleeves and a full skirt that swayed as she walked towards him. He quickly remembered himself and held up the corsage he'd picked for her, a small white rosebud. "Can I pin this on you?"

She didn't blush. Instead she smiled at him and said, "Sure." She stood very still, which helped him avoid sticking her with the pin and opened the door of the car he'd called, specified black for the occasion. She got in and scooted over so he could come in the same door. She'd never done that before. She hadn't blushed either. Was something going on that he didn't know about?

They pulled up in front of the Wisteria Hotel. Sheska suddenly felt her face go red. "Are you sure about this?"

Ed smiled. "Of course. The restaurant at the top, the Skylark, has a great reputation and the city view is supposed to be amazing."

Sheska sighed in relief. Edward noticed. Had she been thinking about... _that?_ _I guess I did take her to a hotel, _he thought, _but just because Mustang recommended the place. I am NEVER asking his advice again._ But he'd asked the Colonel if he knew any fancy restaurants that provided a degree of privacy, and this was the top recommendation.

Ed shuddered at the memory. The Colonel had laughed so hard he almost fell out of his chair. "What happened to the suave lady killer who threatened to steal the women of Central from me?"

Ed had barked out, "I'm in love, idiot!" He'd clamped his hand over his mouth a second later but the damage had been done. _I'll never escape the teasing now._

But Mustang hadn't teased him, to the blonde's surprise. He'd given Edward a list of restaurants, including their good points and drawbacks, and wished him good luck confessing. It was the sort of thing he would have expected from an older brother or father, not his superior. Then again, they were closer to each other now than they had been before he'd left, probably because he understood more about the man now and had his respect. But enough about Mustang. Sheska was his focus tonight, her and the words he had to say.

The waiter seated them by the window, which overlooked Central Command and the river beyond it. They scanned through their menus and each picked a dish without saying anything, both wrapped up in the nervous energy that surrounded what each had to say. The ice water arrived, cracking the tension. Both said, "I have something to tell you."

Edward blushed in embarrassment and glanced away. "You should go first."

Sheska was also blushing. "No, you."

"Really, you should go first. It's fine."

"No, you should really go first. It might affect what I'm going to say." She was hoping they were thinking along the same lines and Ed would be the one to bring the hammer down on their… relationship.

"Alright." He gently put his hand over hers where it laid on the table. "Sheska, these times we've spent together have been a lot of fun. I've enjoyed them a lot, and I think you have too." Her hand tensed under his. He took it as a sign of hopeful anticipation and continued. "It's made me realize what a wonderful girl you are. I was hoping that…we could make this official."

Then it happened. Her hand jerked away from him and retreated into her lap below his vision. But maybe she was just confused. "I mean, I really do like you. I'm even starting to fall in love with you, a little. I'd like to start calling you my girlfriend, Sheska, if that's alright."

"Oh Edward," she said, the hint of a sigh in her voice. "I'm sorry but, you're just too young for me." He gaped at her. Thinking him confused, Sheska tried to elaborate. "I mean, you have an older body, but you're still just a kid inside. I just… I'm not sure I can handle dating someone so much younger than me." There. She had said it. And he looked absolutely miserable.

Ed looked down, hiding his eyes behind his bangs. He sat like that for a full minute. When he looked up, he had a very strained smile plastered over his face. "Okay. We don't have to if you don't want to. Let's just finish dinner. I'll take you home after that, and then we can act like none of this ever happened."

The food arrived and they ate in stifling silence. The car came around to pick them up and they rode home. Sheska got out of the car and walked to the foot of the stairs leading to the dorm entrance. She was about to turn around and apologize, to say that she was sorry that it hadn't worked out. But when she turned around, the black car was already halfway down the block.

Ed got out of the car, walked through the building into his dorm room, and punched a hole in the wall. He was a fool. How could he have thought that it would work? This world still thought he was sixteen years old! He punched the wall again, making the hole a full blown crater. Stupid, stupid Gate! He had been forced to grow into a man to push through an inferno of his own creation and then the Gate had thrown him back into his own world where none of that pain and experience mattered! And he had had the guts to hope for happiness.

Truth really did hate those who trespassed in his domain.

He grabbed one of the over-the-counter sleep pills he used when the nightmares kept him up and drugged himself to sleep.

**I'm so sorry! Please don't come at me with guns and Roy's gloves! Shoot me with reviews instead!**

**Due to many people's uneasiness with the age gap between these two in the original, I'm making Sheska feel the same way. Don't worry, I'll straighten her out soon enough. I just had to get away from the four sisters I've been couped up with for three days and get in some decent writing time.**

** I LOVE REVIEWS!**


	24. What Happened?

Jean Havoc had been dumped by more girls than he cared to remember. He'd seen over half of them stolen by his handsome superior, but he'd lost a few on his own. So he knew exactly what the expression on Ed's face meant when the blonde alchemist walked into the office the next morning. Poor guy.

_Edward must have a pity sensor or something, _Jean thought as the man fixed him with a glare so cold it could have rivaled the Ice Fuhrer's. That made him think a subtle approach would be best if he was going to succeed in finding out what had happened. Because his curiosity was NOT going to leave him alone.

He wasn't the only one. Mustang was boiling inside. Elric had stolen his reputation as the finest bachelor in Central and now he threw it out the window by letting his date dump him. He had to find out what it was so he could use it to tease the man. At least, that was what he told himself.

In reality, he was confused and worried. What had happened? The two had seemed perfectly fine the last few days. Ed had even been concerned enough to ask for his opinion of restaurants. Wait. Was that it? Had his recommendation been too extravagant? Sheska was a more practical, casual girl. What if she'd made a fool of herself at the restaurant and had taken it out on Ed? Or what if it was the reverse? What if Ed had embarrassed himself in front of her and was too ashamed to continue? No, that was ridiculous. Ed would never be as stupid as that.

Then Mustang realized something. This whole time, he'd never once thought of the younger blonde as Fullmetal, Elric, or even Edward. It had just been Ed. What did that mean? That Ed wasn't a kid to Roy anymore? That he was an equal? A comrade? A brother, maybe?

A large stack of paperwork interrupted his thoughts, along with a pistol in his face. "Sir," said Hawkeye as she gently waved the gun in front of his nose, "you haven't done any of your paperwork at all this morning." Mustang quickly picked up his pen and started signing. When the gun was that close to one's face, one didn't ask questions. He could worry about Ed later.

Worry and curiosity are contagious, especially when both were centered on someone you cared about. That was how the whole gang ended up itching for answers and planning out how to get them. They'd sent Edward on a mission that would take all day, so they had the time to come up with something that might actually work. Breda and Jean were doing most of the actual planning, but Kain was eagerly listening and Mustang threw in an occasional suggestion. Falman didn't stop them, and neither did Riza, after the work for the day was finished with surprising speed, which was the result of a few well-placed bullets.

When Edward came back, they put their plan into action. They let him sit behind his desk before Havoc kicked things off with, "Guess what?"

Breda resonded with the planned "What?"

The spiky blonde grinned. "I've got a new girlfriend, and she even works here!"

Riza crashed the party, which seemed perfectly natural. "I do hope you've considered the protocols?" They all shut up, both because they'd planned it and it was a touchy subject for both her and Mustang. "I hope you're not planning anything serious, Havoc."

"Speaking of protocols," chimed in Mustang, right on cue, "have you looked up the rules for Sheska and you, Elric?" This was the critical moment of the plan. Either he would open up and sate their curiosity, or shut himself away and leave them all worried.

He turned away, and they all held their breath until he said, "I don't think I'll have to worry about that. If there are rules, they don't apply to us anymore."

Riza took it from here. She was the uncontested best listener of the group, so she had to be the one to pull the info out of him. "What do you mean, Edward?"

He tilted his head so that his bangs hid his face from them. "Sheska doesn't want to date a sixteen-year-old. She told me last night."

Roy's face fell. This was worse than the dozen different scenarios he'd pictured. Because there was nothing any of them could do to change it. Fullmetal was still officially filed as a teenager, due to the cover story they'd used to fool Olivier.

Then Kain said something that astonished them all. "Why don't you just tell her?"

Ed's head jerked back up and he stared at the man. "What do you mean, tell her?"

"Tell her that you really are old enough for her. Tell her the real story."

Ed scoffed. "And you think she'll just believe it? The only reason you guys did was that I didn't have time to hide it from you. That and you knew what Al and I had been doing with the Homunculi and Dante. But Sheska doesn't know that world. How can I expect her to believe something that crazy?"

Then Jean got that look again. It was the look he had had when they were planning their attack on Edward. It meant he smelled a plan. "What if we told her instead?"

To their surprise, Edward giggled. "You'd scare her half to death, Havoc. She wouldn't let you get within twelve feet of her! Why do you think I used the Perfect Gentleman act to get her attention?" He was truly laughing now. "She'd run at the first sign of Mustang! She's so skittish and adorable and funny and cute and intelligent…" Then he seemed to realize what he'd just said, and a look of complete horror covered him. Oh no, he was never going to get rid of the teasing now!

And he didn't. Breda, Havoc, and Mustang were still going strong three hours later when it was time to leave. But beneath all the verbal poking and tickling, they were somewhat in awe. It was the first time any of them had seen such pure feelings of outrageous love since Hughes had last shoved a picture of Elisya in their faces. They had to get those two back together, for Sheska's sake as much as Ed's. She wouldn't find a better guy. This they were convinced of.

**Don't worry my much loved readers and reviewers, I don't have plans to keep these two apart for long. Let's let the gang work their magic, or I might have something more interesting up my sleeve. Which would you like?**

**I also posted a humorous piece involving these guys called The Joke's on Roy. Try it out and see what you think!**

**I LOVE REVIEWS!**


	25. Tension Breaks

Sheska tried to go about her duties the same way she usually did. She found books, filed cases, and did what she normally did. Angela was out for the day, so no one really noticed the odd lack of absentmindedness in her actions. When lunchtime arrived, she walked down to the mess hall. When she passed through the entryway, she saw Ed waiting for her grinning. She blinked and he was gone. It had only been her imagination.

_I keep thinking about him, _she thought. _But why? I'm the one who broke it off. He should be looking for someone closer to his age, not someone like me._ She passed Hawkeye in the hall and was passing the bathroom when someone grabbed her. She was thrown into a bathroom stall and was quickly surrounded by Edward Elric's fan club.

Yes, Edward had a fan club, a quite extensive one that extended through all the military ranks and different departments. Of course, none of them would admit they were his fan girls, but some of the younger girls were occasionally caught swooning over a snapshot of him or walking past his office just to get a glimpse. When the rumor that Edward was dating Sheska had spread, the girls had begun planning this attack on the unfortunate bookworm. The fact that she'd dumped him had only added fuel to the fire. Now she was backed up against the wall between the partition and the toilet with malignant eyes skewering her.

Their leader stepped forward. She was an older woman, a Major, and she towered over Sheska. "I hope you understand what you've done, Miss Sheska."

She flattened herself against the wall. "Actually, I don't. Could you explain it to me?"

The woman gestured behind her where several younger recruits were crowded, glaring at her with slightly moist eyes. "You broke the hearts of all these girls by forcing the Fullmetal Alchemist to date you. We might have accepted it had you continued to make him laugh and smile, as we so adore, but now that you've cut ties with him, we will not forgive you." The cougar and fierce kittens moved in on their target.

Riza had noticed that Sheska was acting strange when she passed the girl in the hall. She looked over her shoulder to wonder, just in time to see the girl get yanked into the women's lavatory. She ran back and opened the door a crack. Once she heard the words 'broke the hearts' and 'Fullmetal Alchemist', she had a pretty good idea of what was going on. Riza ran to get Edward.

That's why, when the Major started closing in on her prey, Edward grabbed her by the back of her collar and flung her out of the stall and into the opposite wall with a resounding thud. The second in command of the fan club, one of the older privates, yelled, "Why are you defending her? She broke your heart!"

He glowered at them. "Circumstances broke my heart, not her. There is nothing about her that could break my heart. That's why I fell in love with her in the first place!"

A younger girl shouted, "But why her?"

His eyes narrowed and the girl shrank back from her crush. "Because, unlike you, she liked me BEFORE I grew up. And if you ever touch her again I swear Armstrong's hugs will feel like gentle caresses compared to what I'll do." He grabbed Sheska's hand and let her out of the opponent's camp.

She pulled her hand away once they'd left the bathroom. She asked him, "Why did you help me?"

He shrugged. "Just because you don't like me doesn't mean I have to stop caring about you." And he left her standing in the hallway with an incredibly guilty look on her face.

Riza had watched the whole scene play out and had reported back to the rest of the crew who were still plotting the revelation to Sheska. Jean was currently giggling at how cute Ed must have looked and Fuery couldn't stop blushing for the blonde's sake. Falman was the first one to say something coherent. "Well, this makes things easier."

"Indeed," Roy added. "Now that he's made such a clear declaration, her attraction towards him should be even stronger. We also don't have to worry about her safety with Ed's threat still hanging in the air."

The others nodded. Even if Edward hadn't noticed the girls gathering around him, they had, and had wondered how long it would take them to attack the man's girlfriend. Their hastily drawn-up bodyguard schedule was no longer necessary.

"What do you have so far?" asked Riza.

The smoker scratched his head. "Not much. The ideal situation would be to set off one of Ed's panic attacks and then have to explain what caused it. That would bring out the whole story without Edward doing anything but going unconscious."

"No way." Edward said from the doorway. He brushed off their surprised expressions. Honestly, if they were going to talk where anyone could walk in on them, they ran the risk of being overheard. It was a marvel it hadn't happened already."Do have any idea how awful those things are? But I could fake one. It'd have the same effect for the plan, although some of the unconscious bits would be missing like my heart rate going up." He rubbed his chin. "Still, that's probably the best idea. How do you guys want to set it up?"

The rest of the hour went by quickly as they smoothed out the details. Investigations would be the best place since Sheska would be close enough to see the mock attack happen. Edward would come up with the excuse that he needed some particular research book and follow Sheska as she went to find it. Mustang said Ed could probably talk himself out of any awkward situation, so they didn't have to worry about Sheska running away.

Then one of the gang would pass nearby and say they were looking for an example of uranium used in combat. That would be the mock trigger to set Ed off. That, they all knew, was probably the most dangerous part of the plan. If Edward didn't know the remark was coming or if it hit too close to home, he might have an attack for real. They spent a full fifteen minutes just planning out the timing and wording for that into something Ed could fight against. It helped that he came up with the version they finally decided to use.

The person who'd made the remark would get him to the hospital and make sure Sheska followed. There, the girl would have to take over and ask what had happened. From there, it was easy to tell her everything. They'd asked Edward how much he would want the bookworm to know. His answer had surprised them.

"All of it. If I'm going to be honest with her, I'm going to be honest with her all the way. It's the only way to make her believe me." They nodded and wrapped up their plotting session for the day. Tomorrow the plan would go into effect. And they all hoped it worked.

**I do believe a fan club could happen on government soil. Mustang pretty much has one already, so of course I gave Edward one.**

**Thanks to my readers and reviewers! **

**Again, I LOVE REVIEWS!**


	26. A Drink

Mustang stopped Ed from leaving the office with the others. "Let's get a drink." It was a command, not a question.

So Edward followed his superior to a bar a few blocks away. It was spacious and with a brighter atmosphere than most places, although it did have the charismatic cloud of smoke hovering over certain tables. Edward half-expected to see Havoc somewhere.

They sat down in front of the bar. Mustang ordered a shot of whiskey and asked Edward what he wanted.

He looked at the drink menu and spotted his favorite. "Gin please." Mustang's eyebrows shot up. He'd expected to have to teach Edward the different types of alcohol. He'd forgotten about the five years he'd missed, as potent as the romantic reminders had been that day.

Their drinks arrived and Edward said, "Cheers to forcing a panic tomorrow," and downed a third of the glass.

Mustang knocked back half of his whiskey and turned to Fullmetal, a serious expression darkening his features. "I wanted to talk to you about that." The man turned towards him. "Do you really want to risk yourself like that?"

Edward knew what he was talking about, the hopefully fake panic attack. "Relax. I have much better control of it than I used to. It's been over a year since I got back, and three months at least since I had that one after the exam."

Mustang grabbed his shoulder. "That doesn't mean you won't go into another one, even if you know it's coming. You don't mess around with something like that."

Edward looked over at the hand clamped on the port of his automail. "You'll hurt yourself gripping me like that."

Mustang didn't let up. He wasn't going to let Fullmetal change the subject or blow him off. "What do you think it'll do to Al if you go into another one? The first time he was terrified, but you're intentionally putting yourself in danger this time."

Ed looked straight into the man's face. "Are you sure Al is the only one who'd be scared?" Mustang halted. How had Ed known that he was also talking about himself? "And what would you know about panic attacks anyway? It's not like you ever had to go through one."

Roy sighed. If this was what it took to make Ed be more careful…"I did, actually." Ed's expression changed from one of minor annoyance to shock. Good. "After Ishval, I started having them. They were triggered by anything that reminded me of those days. Even just looking into a fire could set me off. The first few weeks were the worst. I couldn't control them at all, and reminders were all around me."

He stared into his drink. "Eventually, I was able to cut down on the number of triggers by talking with a military psychiatrist and forcing myself to trigger them so I knew they were coming. I learned to fight against them that way. Now I only get them when someone deliberately tries to pull up my worst memories, and no one with any decency does that."

Ed transferred his gaze from the man beside him to his glass of gin. "Yeah."

Mustang heard the weariness in his voice. "What's wrong?"

Ed rubbed his hand above his eyebrows. "I've been doing that recently. I've even read books on the subject of bombs and different ones on uranium. I almost went under a couple of times but I was able to pull myself out of it by thinking about the year I've spent back here. Thinking about you guys calms me down, especially thinking about Al."

He looked up from his drink and found his gaze entangled with the Colonel's. "That's why I know I can do this without going into shock. You have to trust that I know what I'm doing, especially if you've gone through the process yourself. This is something I have to do, to get Sheska back and to prove to myself that I'm not a slave to this anymore." He drank the rest of his gin and slapped the cup down on the counter. He called the bartender over and asked for a glass of water. The man looked at him a little strangely, but poured the glass and set it down in front of the young man.

Mustang looked at the drink. "Why'd you order that?"

Edward shrugged. "Well, based on what I've heard about your drinking habits, we could be here a while. I get drunk easily due to my decreased body mass and blood supply, so I'll have water while you get drunk. Fine with you?"

Mustan grinned. "Fine with me." The two drank for another hour, joked around, and headed to their respective homes. It had been a nicer night than either of them had expected, and each had learned something about the other. Mustang was now confident the man could pull off tomorrow's performance.

Edward was slightly more unsettled. Mustang had had panic attacks. He had dealt with them the same way Ed was currently dealing with his. It was starting to unnerve him just how alike the two of them were. But he pushed these thoughts aside. If he was going to fight himself again tomorrow, he would need all his strength, and that meant a good night's rest. Which he dove headfirst into.

**I cannot believe the amount of attention this story is getting! It's amazing! My number of views is fast approaching five digits! And reviews are triple the number of chapters! I love you guys!**

**I hadn't put in much Mustang, so I thought I'd give the handsome devil a little attention. What do you think?**

**Thanks to all my reviewers, particularly otakuzen, Icefire1224, and author12306.**

**I LOVE REVIEWS!**


	27. Fighting

Edward woke up the next day with thankfully no hangover and a full night's refreshing sleep. Memories of the previous night with Mustang ran through his head as he cooked up scrambled eggs and turned on the coffee pot. The good memories and revitalizing night had put him in perfect condition for a battle against the bombardment of his demons. He couldn't have asked for a better morning than this.

It was sunny outside as he walked to Command. Puddles from a rain last night splashed occasional color onto the streets and brightened his mood even more. The world had been washed clean; soon he would be too. He greeted the guards at the gate, earning a smile from their usually stern faces, and walked up the stairs to the Colonel's floor.

Inside the office was utter pandemonium. He watched as Havoc went from one side of the room to the other with a stack of paperwork taller than the man's torso. Fuery was banging on the radio trying to get better reception and Mustang was signing papers like a madman. Ed couldn't help it. It was too funny. He started laughing.

The chaos took a break long enough for them to look over at the culprit of the echoing laughter. Ed had his flesh arm wrapped around his torso trying to keep the force of his laugh from throwing his stomach into his chest cavity. The other hand was clutching the doorknob for balance as he kept howling with mirth. He looked so funny that soon everyone else in the office was laughing along with him. When he finally got a hold of himself, he went over to his desk and acted like nothing had happened, although a smile still lingered around his lips.

The others also returned to their work, although the occasional snigger still escaped them like a whisp of the earlier storm of giggles. They got a lot of work done that first morning. When Eleven reared its head, the paperwork was taken care of and the plot was prepared.

Edward went down to Investigations with the excuse of needing a case file concerning copper transmutations. Luckily for him, Sheska was just returning from a very early lunch so he caught her in the doorway. "Hey Sheska, I'm researching a man called Mr. Cantroy. He worked with copper transmutations. Could I look at the military's file on him?"

She said, "Sure," with a slight blush. She still hadn't forgotten what he had said the other day when he'd saved her from those other soldiers. Had he really meant that? Well it didn't matter. He was still too young for her. That thought removed the blush as they headed into the department.

The files on the different alchemists were pretty far back in their system of filing cabinets and shelves. The crew had picked them for that reason. It gave Ed plenty of time to go into his mock attack and was a believable thing for him to be looking for. About thirty seconds after their entry, Edward heard someone else's feet padding behind them. Havoc was in position.

Ed began his preparations. His mind's eye fastened on Al's face, the expression he'd worn right after he stood for the first time without using his brace. He filled his ears with the sound of the gang laughing from that morning. Then the phrase he'd designed cut through his imagined noise. "Did you guys hear about that uranium mine? They wanted more funding, think they can make it useful somehow. Maybe turn it into a weapon. It's not good for anything else."

His heart started racing. He'd had to cut close to the heart of his fears and triggers to come up with the best lead-in to the explanations. They had done their part and were waiting to help him with the rest. This was his battle, right here, right now.

He pushed the mushroom cloud out of his mind's vision with a picture of how Al had looked when he first saw him. No, that wasn't good. He looked like the emaciated victims in Japan. Edward had to pick another image.

Mustang. Mustang was sitting at his desk, hands folded under his chin. His hands were covered by the destrictive gloves. Memories of the explosions those gloves had caused triggered the mushroom cloud. No! He had to find something on! He was NOT going to go under, not after he'd worked so hard to get this far.

Then Sheska looked up at him with those big brown eyes. Sheska. Yes. He couldn't go under, not in front of the person he had admitted he loved. He wouldn't put her in that position. He heard her ask if he was alright. That voice filled his ears and blocked out the imagined screaming. She was pulling him out of there. He saw Havoc rush over. Good. He was tired from fighting it, even though the signs were gone now. His heart was back to normal, and although sweat covered his body, it was from the physical exhaustion of holding the attack at bay, not the kind he got from actually experiencing one. Edward let his body go limp and his mind blank. He'd fought off the attack. He had done his part. Now it was up to the rest of the gang.

Havoc saw the Chief go limp. Fearing the worst, he rushed over and felt his wrist for a pulse. He relaxed inwardly when he felt the normal rhythm. Edward had won. But on the outside, he still looked frantic, for Sheska's sake. "We have to get him out of here."

She held her ex's hand nervously. "What's wrong?"

"He's having a panic attack. We've got to find the Colonel." They carried Edward back to the office. If the attack had been real, they would have gone to the hospital, but the doctors wouldn't admit someone who wasn't ill. So, using Mustang's experience with them as an excuse should someone ask, they lugged Ed into the familiar room and laid him down on one of the couches. Jean winked at Hawkeye, who passed the message along. Fullmetal was fine. Now it was their turn.

**I wanted Edward to be a real gentleman, not just when he was pretending. So I wouldn't let him break hearts, ToscaThorCat.**

**I know I'm dragging this out, but I honestly have so much fun writing each sequence and adding in cool bits like Ed laughing at everyone that they get to the word limit way too fast. I promise Sheska finds out next chapter. I also enjoy writing chapters that are short and about the same length, so I imposed a rule on my self that I have to write at least 1,000 words for each chapter, or really close.**

**Thanks to all my readers and reviewers, even the ones who can't post reviews.**

**That being said, I STILL LOVE REVIEWS!**


	28. All's Well that Ends Well

Sheska watched as Ed's chest rose and fell as he breathed deeply. She'd heard it speed up while they were looking for that file but she didn't know why. "What happened to him?"

Roy, who had run to his side when he entered the room covered with what he thought was a cold sweat, answered, "He had a panic attack. Do you know what triggered it?"

The girl placed her forefinger over her mouth in a thoughtful gesture. "Well, I did hear someone talking about uranium and weapons. I think it was him, actually." She pointed at Jean.

Breda stormed over and grabbed the Lieutenat by the collar. "Idiot! You know what mentioning that does to him!"

Jean held up his hands in surrender. "Hey, I didn't know the Chief was in there. If I had, I would have been more careful. We all hate it when he gets like that."

"Gets like what?" They turned back to Sheska who was looking confused and a little upset. Had Edward been hiding something from her?

"Sheska." It was Lieutenant Hawkeye. "You should probably sit down. Explaining this might take a while."

Edward rose out of the blackness of sleep slowly. The first thing he noticed was the feel of the thing underneath him. It wasn't flat like a bed. There was a sort of split underneath his back, like he was lying on a couch. He must be in Mustang's office. That thought made him snap his eyes open and fill them with…

Sheska. The girl was standing over him with red rimmed eyes and, when she saw that he had woken up, one of the prettiest smiles he'd ever seen, second only to Al's and Mom's. She grabbed him into a tight hug. "Oh, Edward."

And he knew. It had worked. He returned the hug, gently squeezing her and letting their warmth mingle and envelop them both. He hadn't held anyone like this since they'd tried to bring Mom back. Al had either been a suit of armor or too fragile to hold after that. Maybe next time he saw Al Ed could try this sort of embrace again. But for now, Sheska was more than enough. He pulled away gently, just enough to see her smiling face. Gate, she was beautiful. "So does this mean I can still love you?" She nodded and pulled him in close again.

Edward flicked open his silver watch. Five minutes to 6:00. He tucked the watch back into his vest pocket, letting the chain drape across his chest. Five minutes until Sheska came out to join him.

He chuckled to himself at the irony. First, it had been five years wasted in the other world, only to come back and find out that it had only been five days. Now, again it was five, five days since he'd told Sheska the truth, and those five days had boiled down into these five minutes.

Five to six. In five minutes, he was going to leave behind what had happened up to this point and move forward into a new life as a boyfriend, and perhaps, in the future, a husband and even father. Yes. This was what moving forward was supposed to be like. The clock struck six, the door opened, and Sheska walked out of the building and joined him on the pavement in the warm evening air. He held out his arm and she took it. Then they turned away from Central Command and walked off into the night.

**Yes, this is the end for them. I apologize if it was sappy, but I don't think it is. **

**Thanks to all my steadfast readers and reviewers, guests and members, who helped give me the enthusiasm, guidance, and ideas to write this.**


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